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THE School Efficiency Series comprises twelve | 
volumes by as many educational experts on kin- 
dergarten, elementary school, high school, and vo- 
cational instruction, courses of study, organization, 
management, and supervision. The series consists of 
monographs based on the report of Professor Hanus j 
and his associates on the schools of New York City, 
but the controlling ideas are applicable as well in one | 
public school system as in another. 
Among the authors contributing to tnese volumes are 
Professor Paul H. Hanus, Professor of Education, | 
Harvard University, who is also general editor of the | 
series; Dr. Frank P. Bachman, General Education j 
Board; Dr. Edward C. Elliott, Chancellor, University | 
of Montana; Dr. Herman Schneider, Dean of the Col- | 
lege of Engineering, University of Cincinnati; Mr. i 
Frank W. Ballou, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, 
Boston, Massachusetts; Dr. Calvin O. Davis, Assistant 

Professor of Education, University of Michigan; Dr. 

i 

Frank V. Thompson, Superintendent of Schools, Bos- j 

ton; Dr. Henry H. Goddard, Director, State Bureau | 

of Juvenile Research, Columbus, Ohio; Mr. Stuart | 

A. Courtis, Director of Research and Efficiency, Pub- f 

lie Schools, Detroit, Michigan ; Dr. Frank M. McMurry, j 

Professor of Elementary Education, Teachers College, | 

Columbia University; Dr. Ernest C. Moore, President, I 

State Normal School, Los Angeles, California; and I 
Dr. George D. Strayer, Professor of Educational Admin- 
istration, Teachers College/ Columbia University. 

HnninuMuiiuniroiiuiuuiHumnnHmniimiiMnMWiwiminiwnnmiuOT 




SCHOOL EFFICIENCY SERIES 



Elementary School Standards 

Instruction : Course of Study : Supervision 
Applied to New York City Schools 



SCHOOL EFFICIENCY SERIES 
Edited by Paul H. Hanus 

Elementary School Standards 

Instruction: Course of Study: Supervision 

Applied to New York City Schools 



By FRANK M. McMURRY, Ph.D. 
it 

Professor of Elementary Education, Teachers College 
Columbia University 




YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK 

WORLD BOOK COMPANY 

1922 




Copyright, 1913, by World Book Company. Entered at 
Stationers" Hall, London, England. All rights reserved. 



SKS : ESS— I 



LC Control Number 




2001 315788 



f __ #i. »-» .S* 



EDITOR'S PREFACE 

THE problems dealt with by Professor McMurry in this 
book cover one of the most important fields included 
in the New York City School Inquiry. His task was to 
arrive at a just estimate of the quality of the teaching, the 
course of study, and the supervision by the principals in the 
elementary schools. This task naturally led him to formu- 
late standards of value, whereby the work of the elementary 
schools could be appraised. 

Rejecting the usual examinations as inadequate and un- 
satisfactory for his purpose, Professor McMurry has judged 
the quality of the teaching, course of study, and super- 
vision by the degree to which all three are controlled by 
purposes of recognized value in daily living. His formula- 
tion of the standards on which his judgments are based 
and his detailed descriptions of the application of those 
standards to the actual work of the schools will be useful, 
we believe, to earnest teachers everywhere. Professor Mc- 
Murry did not attempt to make these standards all-embrac- 
ing, but they are so fundamental to satisfactory plans and 
procedure in elementary school work that, whatever limita- 
tions as to scope and variety they may possess, all good 
elementary schools must conform to them. Further, they 
point the way to progressive improvement where improve- 
ment is desirable. 

This book is, accordingly, not merely a report made by 
one of my associates in the New York City School Inquiry; 
it is a contribution to the professional resources of teachers 
and supervising officers wherever their lot may be cast. 
Though essentially Professor McMurry' s report as sub- 
mitted to me and by me submitted to the Committee on 



viii Editor's Preface 

School Inquiry, the report as here printed has been sub- 
jected to important revisions in form and, to a slight de- 
gree, in substance — revisions which were impossible under 
the conditions which governed the preparation and publi- 
cation of the draft submitted to the Committee. 

The book does not attempt to illustrate accurate measure- 
ment of educational results. It is scientific only in so far 
as it brings to bear organized knowledge and insight on 
an educational problem. Scientific measurement in educa- 
tion is, indeed, as yet too little developed to be applied 
to more than a very limited portion of the work of the 
elementary schools. Except for arithmetic and penman- 
ship, " standard scores " or standard achievements are not 
available for measuring the quality of the results actually 
attained by the schools; and even for penmanship and 
arithmetic, the standard measures for each grade are not 
yet firmly established. Moreover, purposes must be formu- 
lated and incorporated into practise before any results to 
be measured can be expected. Scientific measurement of 
results will therefore always presuppose clear conception of 
the purposes to be realized; and the formulation of these 
purposes will always continue to be essential to efficient 
practise. The extent to which these purposes are realized 
falls within the province of exact measurement; but, as has 
been said, without these purposes there is nothing to meas- 
ure, and the methods of exact measurement are still in 
process of evolution. It is worth noting, however, that the 
conclusions in relation to ability in reasoning and computa- 
tion in arithmetic arrived at by Professor McMurry have 
been confirmed by exact measurement, so far as it was 
possible to apply exact measurement, by Mr. Stuart A. 
Courtis, who is expected to contribute a later volume to 
this series. 

Paul H. Hanus. 

Harvard University, 
April, 1913. 



CONTENTS 

Page 
Editor's Preface. By Paul Hanus vii 

STANDARDS AND INSTRUCTION 

Chapter 

I. Standards in General i 

II. Standards Used ln This Investigation .... 5 

III. Value of These Standards 13 

IV. Method of Applying These Standards .... 19 

V. Application of These Standards to Particular 

Recitations 23 

VI. General Application of These Standards in 

Kindergarten and Elementary Instruction . 55 

VII. Recommendations 69 

COURSE OF STUDY 

VIII. Standards for Judging Value of Study .... 79 

IX. Application of These Standards 8$ 

X. Conclusions as to Quality of Curriculum and 
Syllabi of the Kindergarten and Elementary 
School 155 

XI. Recommendations 166 

SUPERVISION 
XII. Standard for Judging Quality of Supervision. 175 

XIII. Application of This Standard 180 

XIV. Facts Indicating that These Conditions are 

Representative of the City at Large ... 185 

XV. Conclusion as to Supervision by Principals. . 207 
XVI. Recommendations as to Supervision by Principals 210 

Index 215 



Standards and Instruction 



STANDARDS FOR INSTRUCTION 
COURSES OF STUDY AND SUPERVISION 

CHAPTER I 
STANDARDS IN GENERAL 

INADEQUACY OF CUSTOMARY KNOWLEDGE TESTS AS A MEANS 
OF JUDGING INSTRUCTION 

IT is customary to judge the quality of instruction by direct 
examination of children in subject-matter. 1 For instance, 
they are asked to state the causes of the Revolutionary War ; 
to tell who is the Vice-President of the United States; to 
name and locate the capitals of California and Kansas; and 
to make an outline drawing of South America. If most 
of such questions are correctly answered, the instruction is 
called good; if not, it is rated as poor. 

The acquisition of knowledge is, of course, one of the 

1 Attention is called to the fact that no attempt is made here to pass 
judgment upon the entire work of the kindergartens and elementary schools. 
The topic under investigation is the quality of instruction alone. There are 
aims of the school not fully included in the aims of its teaching, and there 
are important means for their accomplishment besides instruction, — such, 
for example, as the personal influence of the teacher. The investigation 
has been thus limited, with the idea that if this one broad topic were prop- 
erly treated, more would be accomplished, considering the time and energy 
at our disposal, than if the entire field were covered. 

Twelve persons have shared actively in the collection of data on which 
this portion of the report is based, visiting at least sixty schools in the bor- 
oughs of Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. Altogether not less 
than three hundred lessons were seen, in the majority of which the observa- 
tion covered all or most of the period. In addition, many teachers and prin- 
cipals (not less than one hundred in all) have been consulted at length as to 
the quality of the instruction and the conditions determining it. 

I 



2 Standards for Instruction 

prominent aims of the school, and it should be considered 
in any careful investigation of instruction. But as the sole 
or principal test for judging instruction, it is inadequate for 
several reasons. 

In the first place, the results depend too much upon acci- 
dental conditions, such as recency of review of the par- 
ticular facts called for, or freedom from embarrassment or 
excitement. 

In the second place, the customary examination is too 
superficial and narrow a test of knowledge. It is superficial 
because the good memory which enables one to reproduce 
facts, digested or undigested, is at a premium and often 
allows the thoughtless child to lead the class. It is narrow 
because the subject-matter of the studies is by no means 
all that one needs to know. Knowledge of right methods 
of work is probably more important. An enlightened pro- 
fessor in college is more interested in giving his students 
the proper method of studying the subject than a mere 
knowledge of it; and right methods of study are even 
more worthy of attention in the elementary school, because 
it is there, in the main, that right mental habits are ac- 
quired, if ever, by the great majority of our population. 

In the third place, even if the customary examinations 
fairly tested the understanding of facts, such understand- 
ing is still not the most important of the things expected 
from instruction. There are several things above and be- 
yond knowledge which instruction, according to its degree 
of excellence, does or does not include. Partly because the 
customary examinations fail to give information about these 
higher results of teaching, they do not alone constitute a 
satisfactory test. 

Finally, such tests are unsatisfactory because at best 
they do little beyond revealing the present aims and results 
of the instruction. This investigation has not been un- 
dertaken solely with the idea of discovering present con- 
ditions. It has been undertaken with the additional pur- 
pose of pointing out ways in which, if changes were needed, 



Customary Knowledge Tests 3 

improvements might best be effected. For this reason, 
also, it was important to choose standards of judgment 
that would show how good or poor the instruction now 
is, and at the same time suggest directions that improve- 
ment might take. 

RELATION OF STANDARDS TO AIMS OF INSTRUCTION 

What standards, then, should be set up? The customary 
examinations do, at least, give one suggestion. Knowledge 
has often been used as the standard of value in instruction 
simply because it is one of the purposes of instruction, 
although not the most prominent. This suggests that pur- 
poses, in any field of activity, should be the standards of 
value in that field; this, in general, seems to us a sound 
principle, and it has been prominent in guiding this 
investigation. 

Let us assume, then, that the leading purposes of instruc- 
tion must form the basis for judging its quality; that in- 
struction which accomplishes its aims fairly well is of a 
high order; and that instruction which does not accom- 
plish its aims at all, or but poorly, is of a low order. 

WHERE THE AIMS OF INSTRUCTION MUST BE FOUND 

It is not easy to state the main objects of teaching. But 
since they are commonly supposed to include such a control 
of themselves and of the world's resources by pupils as will 
make them high-minded, appreciative, thoughtful, and gen- 
erally efficient participators in the world's affairs, the more 
immediate purpose of instruction must be to impart the 
knowledge and power, and form the habits that determine a 
well-ordered daily life. That is, we must look directly to 
the life about us to find what subject-matter the school 
should offer, and how this should be treated. The curricu- 
lum will be good to the degree in which it contains problems 
— mental, moral, esthetic, and economic — that are socially 



4 Standards for Instruction 

vital and yet within the appreciation of the pupils; and its 
method of presenting that curriculum will be good to the 
degree in which it exemplifies the methods of solving prob- 
lems found most effective by the world's most intelligent 
workers. 

This proposition is, possibly, the most debatable one that 
we have to offer on the question of standards. For many 
schools that seem to accept character as their final aim, 
tend strongly to eschew any close relation between instruc- 
tion and daily living. 

We are convinced, however, that much of the present 
dissatisfaction with the schools, particularly with their waste, 
is due to neglect of this relationship. We are also con- 
vinced that this position with reference to the elementary 
school is in harmony with the best modern educational 
thought. 



CHAPTER II 
STANDARDS USED IN THIS INVESTIGATION 

ANY list of the main elements in daily living that might 
be taken as standards in judging instruction would 
vary according to the one who made it. Yet such lists 
would to a great extent duplicate each other, because there 
are certain essentials that are common to every person's 
welfare. The following four factors, because of their uni- 
versality, are particularly worthy of acceptance as aims of 
school instruction; and, though others could easily be 
added, they are sufficient to test the general effectiveness 
of teaching. 

FACTOR I. MOTIVE ON THE PART OF THE PUPILS 

One of these factors is motive. One of the great differ- 
ences between efficient and inefficient men is found in the 
purposes that move them. The quality of a man's aims 
chiefly determines the quality of his character; their variety 
determines his breadth; and their intensity his energy of 
thought (including imagination), feeling, and action. Pur- 
poses bear the same relation to efficiency among young 
people as among men. One of the primary responsibilities 
of instruction, therefore, should be to inculcate objects in 
life, or purpose, on pupils. 

This is necessary, first of all, for present conduct. If 
children behave badly in the street, or if they are lazy, the 
school is questioned. The public holds the school respon- 
sible for developing character now, while the pupil is still 
young. But it is necessary also for the future. When 
the time comes for the pupil to choose his vocation, he 

5 



6 Standards for Instruction 

will make his selection blindly if he has no plans and no 
ardent desires. On the other hand, if his ambitions have 
increased and improved along with his knowledge, a way 
has been prepared to meet this crisis, and his choice is far 
more likely to be intelligent and confident. 

Instruction cannot, therefore, rest satisfied with cold 
facts alone. Its quality is to be measured partly by its 
provision for growth in motive. One object of teaching a 
pupil how to keep the skin healthy should be to arouse in 
him a desire to obey the laws of health. One object of 
teaching him to play games should be to make him want 
to learn more games, even throughout life. One object 
of teaching the Crusades in history might well be, by show- 
ing how superficial were the causes and how fearful the 
cost, to influence the youth's attitude toward arbitration. 
One object of teaching about John Hampden is to lead 
pupils to determine to imitate him. One object of teach- 
ing the geography of Germany is, by showing how closely 
she is shut in by neighbors, to make pupils watchful for 
magazine and newspaper articles touching the German at- 
titude toward war and her preparation for it. 

Such an outcome of instruction cannot be left to chance. 
It must be secured by careful planning. First, a curricu^ 
lum must be selected that is near enough to the child's 
interests to nourish ambitions. Not every large topic can 
be of this nature, but every study may contain many large 
topics that have the power of arousing specific hopes for 
the future. 

After such a curriculum has been secured, much depends 
upon the method of its presentation. An instructor in 
literature in a certain seventh grade, after bringing her 
class to a fair understanding of Browning's short poem, 
" The Patriot," raised the question, " Are we now through 
with this selection?" The pupils looked somewhat sur- 
prised, having supposed that their full duty was performed. 
But, seeing that more was expected, they replied, after 
some hesitation, " We might read it again." Also, " We 



Standards Used in this Investigation 7 

might memorize it." They were endeavoring to satisfy 
the teacher rather than to express any plan that had ap- 
pealed to them. 

Yet the poem might, without difficulty, have been so pre- 
sented that the children would have replied with some en- 
thusiasm : " I want to come back to this, particularly to 
enjoy the first two stanzas in contrast with the fourth and 
fifth. I wonder whether such a quick change of fortune 
often happens in real life. Does the fault, in such cases, 
lie with the man himself or with the people? ' ; The teacher 
possessed the skill necessary to secure such responses, but 
there was little evidence that she had planned for them. 
But definite planning and some skill, both in the making 
of the curriculum and in its presentation, are required, in 
order properly to inculcate motive, or to meet this first 
test of the quality of instruction. 

FACTOR 2. CONSIDERATION OF VALUES BY PUPILS 

A second extremely important factor in daily living is 
the weighing of values. The worth of a thing is one of 
the most common and necessary considerations in adult 
life. Any business man will illustrate this fact in five 
minutes of conversation. In any field of experience there 
are usually facts, ideas, and projects of varying value, and 
skill in distinguishing their relative merits is a kind of ex- 
cellence that every one requires; it implies a study of 
causes or reasons and is synonymous with good sense, or 
wisdom. It is important to keep in mind that good judg- 
ment mainly signifies proper appreciation of relative values. 

Considerations of worth are approximately as common 
and necessary among children as among adults. They judge 
the merits of teachers and the justice of treatment from 
both teachers and parents quite freely, whether we like it 
or not. They must often judge when it is safe to cross a 
street, what wrap they shall wear, what games it is best 
to play, what treatment they shall accept from their mates, 



8 Standards for Instruction 

and what kinds of reading matter they shall select. In all 
such cases they can blunder by overestimating minor mat- 
ters, or they can show wisdom. Preparation for both their 
present and their future lives requires, therefore, that they 
be constant students of the worth of things. 

This makes a study of value a prominent element in 
school instruction. All school branches contain facts of 
varying degrees of importance. Many names in history, 
many dates, many places in geography, many words that 
one might learn to spell, are insignificant and need not be 
emphasized. Other names, dates, places, etc., are vital and 
should receive emphasis. Since it is one of the main needs 
of children to distinguish between these two classes of facts, 
one of the main duties of teachers is to help them do this. 
If such distinctions are neglected, there are sure to be 
much waste of time and much misunderstanding of sub- 
jects; and by making such distinction, a close relation 
is established between instruction and growth in good 
judgment. 

Provision for this selective habit in study again concerns 
both curriculum and method. Just as new truths can be 
understood only through related truths already known, so 
new values can be appreciated only on the basis of old 
values properly related. Therefore the topics in the cur- 
riculum must be near enough to things that are of vital 
interest to the pupil for him to feel their worth. If a 
seventh-grade class in history were asked to point to the 
most important paragraph in a chapter on the United States 
Bank, they would have to choose at random, for the topic 
is too foreign to them to awaken feelings of appreciation. 
Or, if they were frank, and were asked to state what they 
most valued in that chapter, they might reply, " Nothing 
at all." That answer would express their attitude toward 
many other topics often included in school curricula. In 
many such cases all that can be done by them is to try to 
understand whatever is stated, and memorize it passively, 
with no thought of its value. 



Standards Used in this Investigation 9 

But after only suitable subject-matter has been selected, 
much still depends upon method. Good method will ever 
keep pupils alert to values. For example, as some parts of 
a story are more important than others, and as some errors 
made by children are more necessary to correct than others, 
pupils even in the lower grades, with much emphasis on 
reasons, should be led to consider which are the more 
significant. Most pupils will distribute their time some- 
what equally over a given list of words for spelling, unless 
they are taught to pick out the few that they do not know 
how to spell and to concentrate upon them. They will 
do the same in learning the multiplication tables and in 
solving problems in arithmetic, unless taught to select in 
accordance with their individual needs. There are few 
recitations in history, geography, literature, or any other 
subject in which the varying values of facts and tasks 
may not be distinguished. 

FACTOR 3. ATTENTION TO ORGANIZATION BY PUPILS 

A third factor of special importance in daily life is or- 
ganization of ideas, or system. How essential this is to 
success in adult undertakings of all sorts every one knows. 
No subject is mastered until the relation of its parts to 
one another is determined, until the facts bearing on each 
phase are separately grouped, and until enough such facts 
are collected to give fair support to each leading idea. 
Good organization of ideas means just this; it signifies 
such order and completeness as will assure thoroughness 
or fulness of comprehension and consequent force in 
presentation. 

The need of organization of facts and ideas by children 
for the accomplishment of their purposes has received little 
attention, although we know that scattered thinking is a 
common enough cause of failure among them. But the 
importance of orderliness of thought in later life is so 
generally recognized that few people hesitate to place upon 



io Standards for Instruction 

the school, from the kindergarten on, the responsibility for 
careful training of children in this respect. 

The school curriculum meets this responsibility to some 
extent by making the organization of ideas a prominent 
part of the study called composition ; sequence — causal or 
otherwise — and grouping are there emphasized. But to 
depend upon that subject alone for securing systematic 
thinking would be much like depending upon grammar 
alone to secure correct English. The organization of the 
subject-matter in each study must be scrutinized, particu- 
larly the extent to which each topic is a well-rounded whole, 
having a central idea that is strongly supported by subor- 
dinate facts brought into close sequence. Many curricula 
give the impression of being composed largely of detached 
facts. 

The teacher's method of presenting facts and the kind 
of response that she accepts from pupils also have great 
influence on habits of organizing ideas. In a certain geog- 
raphy class a teacher, by actual count, put 18 questions 
in two minutes, a rate which seemed to be habitual with 
her. That meant approximately 360 questions in a period 
of 40 minutes. Of course, in such a case as that, each 
question can scarcely call for more than a single fact, and 
each reply must be very brief, usually only a fragment of 
a sentence. In a subject like geography in particular such 
teaching indicates utter neglect of causal sequence. Yet 
that kind of recitation is not uncommon, and its influence 
is directly destructive of orderly, systematic thinking. 

The scope of a teacher's questions, therefore, and the 
fulness of the pupil's answers, should receive close atten- 
tion in judging the quality of her work. Broad questions 
indicate a grouping of the facts in the teacher's mind, and 
if well worded they signify much care in that respect. 
But even where such questions are put there is a tendency, 
both in school and college, to accept any lame answer that 
is correct, without reference to the arrangement of ideas 
or to their forceful, logical presentation. Here is a test 



Standards Used in this Investigation n 

of good teaching. Correctness of statement alone is far 
from sufficient. The answer should be as broad as the 
question; and it should be quite common, rather than 
unusual, for a pupil to talk one, two, or three minutes in 
order to make an effective reply. 



FACTOR 4. INITIATIVE BY PUPILS 

A fourth factor in daily life that ranks with those already 
named is initiative. In the world at large possibly the 
most highly valued quality of character is self-reliance, 
i. e., the ability to act as a leader whether in one's own 
affairs or in the affairs of others. Every intelligent par- 
ent desires to see the right kind of independence devel- 
oped in his child. 

The relation of this power to school instruction is not 
difficult to discern. Children can be furnished with de- 
sirable aims by the teacher; they can also, under the 
teacher's direct stimulus, pass judgments about values and 
organize their facts. Or they can do these things and 
many others in school largely under their own direction. 
Since they must finally do all of these alone, and since they 
are supposed, even as young children, to do many of them 
alone when they study, it follows that the school in particu- 
lar is the institution that should cultivate in them the power 
of self-direction. 

This quality, like some of the others already mentioned, 
requires a curriculum intimately related to the child's ex- 
periences ; for the self-confidence and energy necessary for 
its exercise can never be evoked when the subject is beyond 
the comprehension of the child or is foreign to his interests. 

Good teaching is always related to initiative. In all in- 
struction some one must determine the work to be under- 
taken, must ask questions, and must accept or modify an- 
swers. The teacher can assume full leadership, making all 
the plans and deciding when each has been executed; or 
she can accustom pupils from the kindergarten on to share 



12 Standards for Instruction 

this responsibility, until in the higher grades they can bear 
a good portion of it. Almost every recitation will reveal 
her attitude in this matter, and the procedure that she 
adopts with regard to it will be one of the best single tests 
of the worth of her instruction. 



CHAPTER III 
VALUE OF THESE STANDARDS 

I. AS TESTS OF HABITS FORMED 

THE relation of these four standards to habit is one 
proof of their significance as tests of teaching. Con- 
duct is often defined as a bundle of habits ; and since good 
conduct and purposeful activity are the aim of the school, 
it is not surprising that the superintendent of schools has in 
recent years laid so great emphasis on habit formation. 
The value of school government is largely measured by the 
extent to which it influences such habits as punctuality, 
regularity, and neatness. 

It is the duty of instructors to supplement good school 
government by inculcating other habits more intimately 
connected with the acquisition and use of ideas. Instruc- 
tion is always exerting a strong influence in this direction 
whether the teacher is conscious of it or not; it is always 
inculcating either good or bad ways of using the mind. 
It may easily accustom young people to working in a list- 
less way, without reference to the comparative values of 
ideas, without organizing scattered facts into significant re- 
lations, and in helpless dependence on the teacher; or it 
may habituate them to better ways of working. As it does 
the one or the other, it allows waste without limit, resulting 
in general inefficiency, or leads to great economy and con- 
sequent efficiency. A test, therefore, of the principal habits 
inculcated by the instruction is one of the most effective 
means of determining the quality of that instruction. 

In this respect the standards presented above possess 
peculiar merit. They center attention directly on the lead- 

13 



14 Standards for Instruction 

ing habits of thinking that pupils are forming, particularly 
the habits touching motive, value, system, and independ- 
ence. And although there are valuable habits not here 
included, these standards, by measuring what the children 
themselves are accomplishing toward the formation of cer- 
tain very important habits, help to estimate the influence of 
instruction on habit formation in general. 



2. AS TESTS OF THOROUGHNESS OF KNOWLEDGE 

In any attempt to organize ideas one is primarily con- 
cerned with the relations that those ideas bear to one an- 
other. They must be grouped and arranged in sequence 
in accordance with their inner connections; and the ex- 
cellence of the organization is directly proportionate to 
the fulness of insight into these relations. Careful atten- 
tion to organization is, therefore, one important means by 
which fulness of insight, or thoroughness of comprehen- 
sion — in the scholar's sense — is attained. 

Attempts to distinguish the varying values of facts show 
a desire to go beyond the mere connections that they have 
with one another and to consider their bearings on human 
affairs. The insignificance of some things is due to the 
fact that they have little to do with our interests ; and the 
significance of others is that they are vital to us. Careful 
attention to relative values, therefore, gives assurance of 
an additional kind of insight or degree of thoroughness; 
not the kind that the scholar, as such, requires, but the 
kind that any one needs who expects finally to make use 
of his knowledge. 

The requirement that instruction should exert an influ- 
ence on hopes and purposes carries this latter insight a 
step further by individualizing it. It is the particular pupil, 
each time, whose hopes and ambitions are to be affected, 
and if that is to be accomplished he must see the peculiar 
bearings of the instruction — whether theoretical or prac- 
tical — upon his own career. In this case the insight must 



Value of these Standards 15 

be so thorough as to lead to some degree of feeling and 
volition. 

Finally, the demand that instruction assume responsibil- 
ity for the exercise of the pupil's initiative aims at an in- 
sight that will allow one to go still further and to use 
knowledge. Up to this point knowledge is only compara- 
tively thorough, because it is theoretical. But the exercise 
of initiative involves to a considerable degree the inde- 
pendent use of knowledge, and therefore control over it; 
and thus it greatly increases the degree of thoroughness. 

Every one knows that the word " knowledge " is used 
in many senses, signifying different degrees of thorough- 
ness. The four standards that have been proposed test 
four of these degrees, beginning with the thoroughness of 
the scholar, which really insures only information, and end- 
ing with the use of knowledge, which insures control of 
information — a far higher degree of thoroughness. 

3. AS TESTS OF INSTRUCTION IN THE THREE r's 

It may be admitted that, when thinking constitutes the 
bulk of the work, as in studies in which the results are not 
largely dependent upon repetition or drill, these standards 
may prove admirable tests of thoroughness of understand- 
ing. But what is their value as tests of such subjects as 
spelling and the three R's? 

In finding an answer it is necessary to recall the fact 
that these are often called the formal subjects, because 
they deal so extensively with forms or symbols. The great 
danger is not that these subjects will fail to receive a fair 
amount of attention, but rather that they will be taught 
formally, or too mechanically. That is, the children are 
in danger of learning to read without expression ; of spell- 
ing words wrongly in writing letters to friends which they 
spelled correctly in lists; of adopting a stilted style in 
composition because, having really nothing that they want 
to say, they are thinking mainly about words; of failing 



1 6 Standards for Instruction 

to solve simple real problems even though they have learned 
to solve book problems that are more difficult. In other 
words, there is even more danger here than in other sub- 
jects that the work will be superficial, taxing the memory 
mainly. In that case, interest is wanting, attention is di- 
vided, and little is finally learned. 

The crucial question, then, in these subjects is : Do the 
words stand for real thoughts? or, How live-minded are 
the pupils? That is just the question that the proposed 
standards help to answer. Inasmuch as they direct atten- 
tion to provision for motive, for exercise of initiative, for 
selection according to values, and for grouping according 
to relationship, they gage the thoughtfulness of both teachers 
and pupils in these branches. For example, they note 
whether or not a teacher is making selections in beginning 
reading that are interesting; whether she is directing the 
pupils at every step, or is leading them largely to direct 
themselves; whether she is causing special emphasis to be 
placed upon a word or a sentence or a paragraph that is 
especially important, or is treating all such things as of 
equal value; and whether she is having a story read by 
its natural parts, or is making the individual word or some 
other small part the conspicuous unit of advance. Thus the 
life-giving qualities in these formal subjects are tested by 
these standards. 

But, granting so much, the question may still be asked, 
" Do these standards test the knowledge of words as re- 
quired in reading and spelling, and of the fundamental 
operations in arithmetic? " 

We admit that there is more doubt here. Some teachers 
assert that live thinking in these subjects is the best possible 
guarantee of mastery of the mechanical facts in them, far 
better than frequent drills. Others assert that frequent 
drills are the only guarantee. 

On account of this doubt we have deemed it wise to 
fortify our investigation at this important point by sup- 
plementing the proposed standards with some actual ex- 



Value of these Standards 17 

aminations in formal facts. The Courtis tests have been 
used for this purpose. These are discussed, along with 
the conclusions reached, in another book of this series by 
Mr. S. A. Courtis. 



4. AS SOURCES OF SUGGESTION FOR IMPROVEMENT 

It was deemed important that the standards chosen for 
judging the quality of instruction do more than show merely 
whether it was good or bad. Very often after an exami- 
nation has proved that teaching in the three R's has been 
poor, a cry is raised for more drill as the remedy. But that 
suggestion is a mere guess. In fact, " being poor " in 
reading has usually been found to mean that it was too 
mechanical; and more drill would only make it still more 
mechanical, and therefore worse. Whatever be the quality 
of instruction, then, standards for judging it should be 
chosen that suggest desirable ways of improving it. 

Here, we think, is revealed one of the merits of the 
standards proposed. While not testing primarily what 
children know — although, as explained, they include that 
— they do two things: they fix attention (a) on what the 
children are doing, and (b) on the value of it as judged 
by its relation to the purposes of instruction. 

Suppose, now, that a teacher is found asking a great 
number of questions in geography, which the pupils are 
answering as best they can. They may or may not show 
much knowledge. But since self-leadership is one of the 
purposes of instruction, the pupils should at least partici- 
pate in proposing the questions. And since organization 
of ideas is another prominent object, the many detailed 
questions should be reduced to a smaller number by a more 
careful grouping of details. Thus such instruction would 
be shown to be weak, probably, in two respects; and im- 
provement would consist both in throwing more responsi- 
bility upon the pupils, and in studying the organization of 
the facts presented. 



1 8 Standards for Instruction 

These standards, therefore, by fixing attention on the 
chief things to be accomplished in teaching, directly sug- 
gest ways in which improvement might be effected when 
that teaching is poor. 



5. AS TESTS OF THE CURRICULUM 

Not seldom is the teacher's method of presenting subject- 
matter the sole question considered when the quality of 
class-room instruction is under investigation. But the sub- 
ject-matter itself may have been selected without reference 
to the aims of the school. That is far from uncommon. 
Then, no matter how skilful the method of presentation, 
facts are acquired that have no purpose. That means 
waste. Or, while the facts are of general value, they may 
lack adaptation to the age or particular experiences of par- 
ticular children. Then again even a skilful teacher must 
fail to secure assimilation of the facts. There is waste 
again. The curriculum, therefore, as well as the method 
of its presentation, is necessarily a very prominent subject 
of investigation when the quality of instruction is being 
considered. Both of these are continually in evidence in 
any recitation, and they together determine its quality. 
Any standards adopted must then be clearly applicable to 
each. In this way the work of the higher officials — the 
principals and superintendents — who make the curriculum, 
as well as that of the class-room teacher, receives a direct 
evaluation. It is partly because the standards above pre- 
sented are so clearly related to the curriculum that we are 
convinced of their merit as a basis for testing the quality 
of teaching. (Their relation to the curriculum is more 
fully discussed later on.) 



CHAPTER IV 
METHOD OF APPLYING THESE STANDARDS 



i 



TWO PLANES OF INSTRUCTION 

i. Instruction on the Higher Plane 

N instruction on the higher plane facts are comprehended 
and remembered; they cannot be neglected because they 
are the raw material with which instruction deals. But 
they are mainly the means, not the end in themselves. 
Efficiency on the part of the pupils is the goal; and facts 
are selected and presented with the object of making the 
pupils energetic and high-minded, judicious, forceful, and 
self-reliant. Review must always play a prominent part 
in good instruction; but review by thoughtless repetition, 
or drill, is not prominent here because it is not necessary. 
Most of the facts are overhauled and associated in so many 
thoughtful ways that they are understood and remembered 
without the help of mechanical repetition. But the strik- 
ing fact here is the evident relation between the instruc- 
tion and the principal aims of the school. No doubt some 
recitations do not indicate this connection; but a majority 
of them are so conducted that a striving for the higher 
objects, and a partial attainment of them, are plainly 
observable. 

2. Instruction on the Lower Plane 

In instruction on the lower plane the comprehension and 
retention of facts and mechanical skill, rather than certain 
effects upon the more important habits of pupils, are the 
acknowledged goal. The subject-matter of the curriculum 

19 



20 Standards for Instruction 

is here more carelessly selected because the need of very- 
careful selection is not felt. Also mechanical repetition is 
far more frequent because lack of motive, of abundant as- 
sociation, etc., makes it compulsory. Some of the recita- 
tions give glimpses of a relation of the facts studied to 
the higher aims; but the great majority show that neither 
teachers nor supervisors are looking beyond the storage of 
knowledge and acquisition of mechanical skill. 

JUDGING INSTRUCTION BY THESE PLANES 

The general healthfulness and efficiency of the instruc- 
tion depend upon these two planes. Not all of it can be 
on the higher plane ; nor should most of it be on the lower. 
That instruction is good in which occasional recitations are 
clearly on the higher plane and in which most of them 
show intelligent attempts to place it there. That instruc- 
tion is poor in which the great majority of recitations 
reveal not even a striving toward the higher plane. 

Here, then, is the dividing line between good and poor 
teaching; and in this report we have endeavored to find 
out to which of these two types the teaching in the New 
York City kindergartens and elementary schools mainly 
belongs. 

In following this plan many details have been neglected. 
But it is partly because they are not of primary interest 
at this point. The general efficiency of the schools — the 
quality of the results that they are securing — has been 
the question under investigation; and an answer to that 
question required that they be judged with reference to 
the objects that they were expected to accomplish. 

To enumerate all of these objects was obviously impos- 
sible, nor was it necessary. Only a few were selected, but 
those comprehensive enough in character to reveal the pre- 
vailing tendencies. Many of the details that influence the 
quality of teaching are considered at length in later chap- 
ters. But here our purpose has been to determine, in a 



Method of Applying these Standards 21 

broad way, whether the instruction is clearly so related to 
leading phases of active life as to be wholesome, reason- 
ably effective, and promising for the future; or whether 
it lacks this relation, and is in need of radical improvement. 



JUDGING INSTRUCTION BY THE ACTIVITY OF THE PUPILS 

In applying these standards it is necessary to emphasize 
a distinction to which reference has already been made. 
One may observe the teacher, primarily, and judge the 
quality of her instruction mainly in terms of her own ac- 
tivity. In that case we consider her provision for motive, 
the pointedness and force of her presentation, her atten- 
tion to relative values, and her exercise of independence. 
Standards that have been proposed for judging the work 
of teachers, as a rule, presuppose this point of view. 

But one may also judge the quality of instruction chiefly 
in terms of the activities of the pupils. In that case we ask : 
What are the children doing? Are they setting up objects 
of their own? Are they pointed and forceful in their re- 
sponses? Are they selecting facts according to values? 
Are they exercising initiative in their study? 

While these two points of view are intimately related, 
since the teacher's activity must greatly influence that of 
the pupil, they are far from identical. Proof of this state- 
ment is found in the fact that experienced teachers will 
readily describe their own procedure in presenting a given 
topic to pupils, while they will usually hesitate and show 
embarrassment when asked to describe the procedure to 
be expected from pupils in studying the same topic. That 
signifies a consciousness on their part that pupils should 
do something quite different from what they themselves 
do, as well as an ignorance of what it should be. The 
explanation is that teachers, supervisors of teachers, and 
authors of books on teaching have been so intently observ- 
ant of the procedure of the teacher that they have over- 
looked that of the pupils. Yet the center of gravity of 



22 Standards for Instruction 

the school lies in the pupil; and what he himself finally 
does determines the value of all the teacher's efforts. He, 
therefore, should be the primary object of consideration, 
rather than the teacher, and the quality of the instruction 
should be judged mainly in terms of his activity. 



CHAPTER V 

APPLICATION OF THESE STANDARDS TO 
PARTICULAR RECITATIONS 

THESE standards have been used, first, as tests of par- 
ticular recitations, with the object, chiefly, of showing 
how applicable they are to the details of instruction. Then 
they have been applied to the mass of recitations observed 
by the various members of the staff of specialists in all the 
five boroughs of Greater New York. The following are 
examples of teaching judged in accordance with the stand- 
ards described: 

NEWSPAPER RECITATION IN GRADE 6 

In a certain sixth-grade reading class copies of a four- 
page school newspaper, called Current Topics and dated 
September 15, 191 1, were distributed; the period was then 
devoted to the reading and discussion of its articles. 

Probably one-third of the children present were reading 
newspapers occasionally; most of them would soon be read- 
ing them regularly. It would have been fitting, therefore, 
for the teacher to remind them that newspaper reading was 
a task awaiting them all, and that many persons did it in 
a very poor way. Thus the reading of papers in the right 
way might have become somewhat firmly fixed among their 
purposes. 

Following this they might have considered what parts 
were most worthy of attention. On the four pages were 
fifty-three separate articles, aside from a few advertise- 
ments ; and of course not all were equally valuable. Among 

23 



24 Standards for Instruction 

the most important was one occupying the entire third 
column of the first page, telling about President Taft's 
prospective trip that was to consume forty-six days and 
cover 13,000 miles. A second one of special interest on the 
front page was a short paragraph on the " Danger in Ice 
Cream." On the third page was a valuable column about 
the new " Canadian Railway from Hudson Bay to the 
West," and, on the fourth, one about " Maine and Prohibi- 
tion." Only three or four others ranked with these few 
in worth, and one of the most important factors in the 
proper reading consisted in the selection of these portions. 

No doubt most of the children were inclined to read the 
whole of an article in order to determine its value; and 
that fact would have necessitated a consideration of the 
relation of the headings to what followed under them. 
This would have introduced the question of organization. 
If the substance of an article were correctly indicated in 
its title, further reading would often have been unneces- 
sary. But the children would have had to judge whether 
or not the titles could be relied upon in this way. In thus 
considering the central thought their attention would have 
been directed to the very essence of organization. Organ- 
ization would have had to receive further attention, too, 
owing to the fact that there were a full dozen of the fifty- 
three articles that contained only five lines or less. Not 
enough details can usually be brought together within five 
lines to secure force, which is one of the principal elements 
in good organization. For instance, under the heading, 
" The Turbulent Lake," was the sole statement, " Lake 
Michigan has just had its greatest storm in many years." 
Such isolated fragments are comparatively worthless. The 
paragraph on " Danger in Ice Cream " contained only eight 
lines, and while it stated that much of the ice cream sold 
is made of impure materials, containing filth and disease 
germs, there was such striking lack of detail in the way of 
proof that the desirable force was plainly wanting. 

Finally, the teacher might have influenced the pupils 



Application to Particular Recitations 25 

themselves to take much of initiative. For example, im- 
mediately after the determination of the task before them 
she might have said : " You may begin the reading at any 
point that you think is the best. If the others, or if I, 
disagree with you, we shall interrupt." Then, if any one 
had shown a tendency to be non-selective, or inattentive to 
organization, both questions and answers might have fol- 
lowed from pupils, directed to one another; and the in- 
structor would have needed only to supplement their efforts 
when their own power was insufficient. 

The plan actually followed, however, was very different 
from all this. After the papers had been distributed, the 
teacher said, " John, begin with the left-hand column on 
the front page," and the first seven articles, occupying two 
columns, were read in order, with occasional comments and 
questions on the facts by the teacher. Then, seeing by the 
clock that a considerable part of the hour was past, and 
apparently observing that the article on President Taft, 
occupying a whole column, was too long, she directed the 
class to omit that and proceed with the next section, on 
" The Swimming of the English Channel." 

Thus this teacher was the leader throughout the period, 
determining the order of procedure from the start, putting 
practically all of the questions, and determining the cor- 
rectness of all the answers. There was not only no exercise 
of initiative on the part of the class, but there was no 
selecting according to value by any one; no attention to 
organization by any one; and no apparent consciousness 
on the part of any one of any purpose beyond learning the 
news of the day. In brief, the recitation showed not even 
a striving toward the higher plane of instruction, and re- 
sulted in only scrappy information. 

LITERATURE RECITATION IN GRADE 5 

In a certain fifth grade in literature the class were di- 
rected to turn to the five-page fairy tale, " The Blue Light," 



26 Standards for Instruction 

and to begin on the third page, since the previous pages 
had already been read. The boy called upon to begin 
arose and said : " There are three words in the first sen- 
tence [of two lines] that might cause me trouble; namely, 
sudden, dwarf, and midst/' Then he read the two lines 
aloud and sat down. The next pupil called attention to 
the word soldier in the next sentence, of less than one 
line, and read that sentence only. After him each child 
called upon pronounced the difficult words in his sen- 
tence and then read the sentence. In all, perhaps twenty 
words were thus named in advance, and the entire para- 
graph of eighteen lines was read, and then read a second 
time, in a period lasting from fifteen to twenty minutes. 
This method of reading is not uncommon in certain parts 
of the city. 

Throughout the period the attention of all concerned 
seemed to be mainly directed to the proper pronunciation 
and enunciation of individual words. To this end the 
smallest possible unit of advance was adopted, i. e., the 
single sentence, and discussion was confined to remarks 
about single words and phrases. Organization could 
scarcely have been more neglected. 

If the children had been expected to read this story in 
school approximately as they ought to read such stories 
outside, which is practically the standard that we have 
urged, they would, first of all, have adopted a much larger 
unit of progress for each person — a whole paragraph, for 
instance, or a good part of one, if these were long. Then 
each pupil would have had a much better opportunity to 
enter into the spirit of what he read, and far more ground 
would have been covered. 

The only suggestion of any attention to organization 
came in one request of the teacher, at the close of the 
period, for a boy to give " the idea of the paragraph." 
But her wording was accidental, for she accepted a detailed 
reproduction of the entire section without comment. 

Need was not lacking, even in this small portion, of 



Application to Particular Recitations 27 

dwelling on the more important facts. For in dialogue 
form it showed how the manner of the soldier changed 
from utter discouragement and incredulity to surprise, 
hope, and joy. Attempts to express these different feel- 
ings were necessary both to appreciation of the story and 
to its proper oral rendering. But no such tendency toward 
selection was shown. 

Finally, conversation about the leading features of so 
interesting a story might have been introduced, the class 
thereby learning to fill in between the lines by the use of 
their imaginations, and to express judgments on their 
own initiative. In this way there might have been devel- 
oped not only a good degree of independence in connec- 
tion with their study of literature, but also a stronger 
desire for more reading. But there was no suggestion of 
any such work. Knowledge alone, and knowledge only 
of minute detail, seemed to be the purpose; and the reci- 
tation was on the same plane as that on the newspaper held 
in a different school. 



A FIRST-GRADE RECITATION IN READING 

A first-grade recitation in reading was of a very dif- 
ferent kind. The teacher had several times sung before 
her class the Mother Goose rhyme, 

Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John 
Went to bed with his stockings on ; 
One shoe off, the other shoe on, 
Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John. 

Some of the children sang this with the teacher; then, 
having memorized the tune and the words, they sang it 
without her help. 

At this point she hung a large card before them with 
the rhyme printed upon it. Remarking that here were 
the words of the song, she asked for a volunteer to point 
out the first words, " Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son 



28 Standards for Instruction 

John." Some one else volunteered to read the second line; 
another the third line; and another still the fourth. After 
whole lines were thus read several times by the children, 
or were pointed to by them while some one else read them, 
attention was called in a similar way to certain phrases, 
such as " my son John," " one shoe off," " went to bed," 
etc. Finally, single words were located as they were 
called, or were recognized as they were located. 

At the end of twenty-five or thirty minutes a large ma- 
jority of the class seemed to know most of the words — a 
remarkable fact, since there were more than fifty children 
present and this was only the second week of school. 

One striking feature of the lesson was the fact that the 
children were learning to read something that was of in- 
terest to them, so that the words were more than mere 
empty forms. This plan tended plainly to establish a liking 
for reading, and therefore for the school. Thus motive 
was skilfully provided for. 

The selection required no consideration of relative values, 
and the teacher made no reference to that point. But at- 
tention was plainly directed to organization. The class 
read the whole piece; then whole lines; then groups of 
words, or phrases; and only toward the end were the 
words dealt with individually. The method, up to this last 
step, was influencing the children to group words ac- 
cording to their relations to one another, so as to read with 
expression rather than to pronounce words singly. But 
in this last part one line after another was read somewhat 
slowly, with the pointer resting upon each word, so that 
there was a tendency only to pronounce the words. This 
procedure seemed so dangerous to proper grouping of 
words in phrases that the teacher was later asked by the 
visitor how she made sure of good expression. She replied 
that she had been securing it partly by having the children 
chant these rhymes in their music period. Evidently she 
recognized the full bearing of organization upon the sub- 
ject of beginning reading. 



Application to Particular Recitations 29 

Nor was provision for self-help lacking. Having mem- 
orized the rhyme the class were in position to read each 
line in order without help, then to recognize the main 
parts of which it was composed, and finally the single 
words. And if they failed to call a certain phrase or 
word, they could recall the whole line, or if necessary go 
back to the beginning and trace down the part. In this 
way they were learning to recognize a form by the aid of 
the context, which is the least mechanical and most inde- 
pendent approach to new words — either form or mean- 
ing — that there is. This plan, together with the fact that 
the children were already sharing with the teacher the re- 
sponsibility of deciding the correctness of answers, gave 
promise of rapid development of self-reliance in the class. 

This recitation belonged beyond a doubt to the higher 
type of instruction. 

CONSTRUCTION IN A KINDERGARTEN 

Age of children, 5-6 years. 

Materials used, a 3-inch cube, composed of cubes partly 
subdivided into halves and quarters, etc. (Fifth gift.) 

Two children distributed the boxes deftly, and when all 
were ready the teacher remarked that, as they had not 
quite finished the large chair they were making last time, 
they would make it again. 

Boxes were opened and directions were given for lifting 
the top layer of blocks, so that eighteen whole cubes were 
left in a solid form measuring 3x3x2 inches. The 
teacher then asked if any one knew how to begin, and 
several children recalled that three cubes lying at the front 
should be placed in such a way as to form the back of the 
chair. From this point each worked independently; that 
is, they did not wait for each other or for directions, and 
it was quite evident that most of them held some former 
construction more or less clearly in mind. 

Any deviation from the original form was checked by the 



30 Standards for Instruction 

teacher's saying, " That is not right." " Don't you re- 
member where we placed that block? " " The chair back 
was not so high," etc. There was no point at which it was 
apparent that new or uncompleted parts were being thought 
out. It was a type of lesson which in the elementary school 
would be called a review or a test lesson. Its purpose 
seemed to be to test ability to recall and reconstruct. Ac- 
curacy and conformity seemed the chief considerations. 

After all had completed the large chair according to 
pattern, the teacher said : " Now you may make some 
small chairs. Try to make three out of the large one 
without tearing it down — good workmen always do that 
way." This part of the lesson was somewhat freer than 
the first part, and some variations in form resulted. How- 
ever, since more stress was laid on the particular mode of 
securing these small chairs from the large one than upon 
getting well-proportioned, pleasing chairs, the forms on 
the whole were not good and the children displayed little 
satisfaction in them. 

The following judgments of the lesson seem warranted : 

The children were not discovering a way of making 
chairs that might prove valuable to them later in their play. 
Nor were they making these chairs in order to put them 
into their doll houses, or to play with them otherwise. At 
least during the period there was no reference to one of 
these purposes, or to any other. The conclusion is drawn, 
therefore, that the subject-matter of the recitation bore no 
relation to their own particular desires and plans. In doing 
as they did they were simply trying to satisfy the teacher. 

Organization of subject-matter was emphasized. But it 
was an organization concerned with sequence alone, the 
particular order of moves agreed upon by adults in securing 
all possible manipulation of such blocks. Indeed, it was 
this particular sequence of moves that made up the subject- 
matter of the recitation. This is clearly seen when one re- 
calls that the product wanted, i. e., the chair, might have 
been arrived at just as truly in much briefer time had the 



Application to Particular Recitations 31 

children been allowed to take the blocks out of the box in 
any orderly manner and set them up in their own way. 

Now, while care as to sequence may be a good thing, it 
was in this case the teacher, rather than the situation itself, 
that made it necessary ; i. e., it was an artificial sequence. 
And it was so excessively refined that if a child were to 
follow it closely at home in playing with his blocks, he 
would be giving signs that he was not well. In general, the 
standard for values in school is found in their values outside. 

The absence of any real purpose of the recitation, from 
the children's point of view, allowed them no basis for their 
judging of relative values. The teacher, also, in her devo- 
tion to artificial technique, had entirely lost her bearings 
in regard to relative values. That accounts for all neglect 
of proportion of parts in the chairs that were made. 

Finally, the suggestion as to what should be done and the 
sequence of steps or moves came from the teacher. Even 
in the second and freer part the pupils were directed to 
" make three chairs out of the larger one," and do this 
" without tearing it down." While there was some free- 
dom as to rate or speed, the recitation may be described as 
a dictation exercise, or a review of one, with freedom al- 
lowed in a few minor respects. 

On the whole, the recitation, lacking purpose and content, 
was a good illustration of the extremely formal work often 
seen in kindergarten and primary schools. 

Its sole excuse is a profound belief in its disciplinary 
effects; but the doctrine of formal mental discipline has 
been so nearly disproved by modern psychology that little 
worth is left to such instruction beyond its keeping children 
out of mischief; which, as a principal claim, converts the 
teacher into a mere caretaker. 



CONSTRUCTION IN ANOTHER KINDERGARTEN 

Children 5 years of age. Arranging and pasting of pic- 
tures of a blacksmith at work. 



32 Standards for Instruction 

The teacher recalled a visit made by the class to a black- 
smith shop, and asked them if they would not like to make 
a picture of the blacksmith. 

" What ought the picture to show ? " she said. Different 
things were mentioned and some of the movements of the 
smith at work were illustrated by the children. Then the 
teacher told them they could plan a picture showing him 
bending over or upright, with hammer in hand at the anvil, 
or in front of the forge. Parts previously cut out by the 
teacher were adapted to different poses, and the children 
chose what they would represent. Then they arranged the 
parts according to their own ideas, teacher and children 
making occasional comments. Children asked questions and 
sought advice as to placing, and the replies sometimes came 
from the teacher and sometimes from other children. A 
good deal of recalling and of mental picturing was necessary. 

The task of producing a picture of a smith at work, ex- 
pressing an idea that is accurate and pleasing in both 
selection and arrangement, is worth doing. Its accomplish- 
ment requires observation, thinking; it develops taste of 
a sort often called for throughout life and intimately re- 
lated to children's needs and desires. Motivation is, there- 
fore, admirably provided for here. On the part of both 
teacher and children there had to be weighing of values, 
with reference to the idea to be expressed and to the method 
of expression. The teacher had to select the most promi- 
nent and characteristic things connected with the blacksmith 
in order to cut out the parts for the picture. The children, 
under her leadership, had to distinguish between essentials 
and nonessentials, in order finally to center upon some of 
the same things. In deciding upon desirable arrangement, 
distinction and selection were again necessary. 

Further, the " composition " called for the putting of 
things together in right relation. The picture was not to 
show merely a list of objects that the blacksmith used, nor 
any other mere list. It had to have a central idea, if pos- 
sible, with details so grouped about it as to form a unit. 



Application to Particular Recitations 33 

Attention to organization was, therefore, necessary through- 
out the period. 

Finally, although the teacher assumed much initiative in 
originally selecting and cutting out the parts, this only pre- 
pared her the better for leading the pupils to exercise their 
own power in that direction. And not only did they select 
and arrange, but in her presence they corrected, and made 
suggestions to, their mates. In her corrections she usually 
did not have to exercise authority by declaring, " That is 
not right," or " That piece does not belong there " ; but 
she could ask, "Was it so in the shop?" or "Could the 
smith work in that way? ' ; Thus, although limited by the 
facts, they were free to express their own individuality, 
as the great variety of pictures produced quite conclusively 
proved. 

This recitation was almost ideal, and formed in every 
respect a striking contrast to the one preceding. 

A LESSON IN SHOP WORK 

Grade, 7B; 28 boys. Project, a book rack with a hidden 
mortise joint. 

The boys at the benches stood at attention. Monitors 
distributed materials. They were vigorous and exact in 
their work. 

Teacher : " What is the next thing to do on our book 
racks? Hands up." 

John : " Cut down the end parts to put into the mortises 
we made last time." 

Teacher : " What do we call these end parts ? " A few 
hands. 

Isaac: " Tenons." 

Teacher : " A tenon. Now this is the way to begin." The 
teacher makes a quick sketch of the board used as the bot- 
tom of the rack. He talks as he sketches, asking the boys 
to name the various parts as he sketches — working edge, 
dimensions, etc. He tells about taking the try-square and 



34 Standards for Instruction 

pencil, squaring the ends, taking the ruler and measuring 
one-half inch in from the end on the working edge, then 
down one inch from the working edge on the surfaced side 
of the board; then about applying the try-square, starting 
from the working edge and making the line that marks the 
inner edge of the tenon; then about setting the thumb 
gage at half inch, and marking the upper and lower edges 
of the tenon. As the teacher talks and refers to his sketch, 
the boys take the sheet of drawing paper already containing 
the previous portions of the instruction given and make a 
similar sketch and take down the chief items of the 
dictation. 

When the problem is thus set forth through the sketch, 
the teacher takes his own book-rack materials (he makes 
a project, as a demonstration, step by step, before the class 
in each case) and, placing the board for the bottom on the 
bench, squares up the ends as he has instructed. Before 
taking each step he asks the boys to tell him what to do, 
requiring that they name each part technically in speaking 
of it, and each tool as it is taken up. If there is doubt or 
ambiguity in their statements, he asks them to come up to 
show him what they mean. Thus, talking and working, he 
does just what he expects them to do. On finishing this, 
which takes twelve minutes, he directs them to go to work. 
He now moves about among them, calling especial attention, 
where needed, to little points in handling tools or materials. 
One rather common defect was the failure to place boards 
properly in the vise. Another, common to most of the 
pupils, was the squaring. So he interrupted thus : 

Teacher : " Everybody stop work. Where do we always 
begin in squaring?" 

Boy : " On the working edge." 

Teacher: " Of course. Now most of you are forgetting 
about that." He then takes the board of one boy and, ap- 
plying the try-square, starts on the working edge, goes 
around the board, coming back to the working edge, telling 
of the order of steps as he goes, insisting that when he gets 



Application to Particular Recitations 35 

around the board the lines must meet. The boys watch 
attentively. " Now does everybody understand ? Then go 
to work." He continues among them, often telling what to 
do, frequently asking, " What did we say about that? " or, 
"What do your notes say about that?" and often taking 
the materials and tools and showing what to do. Reasons 
for doing things are scarcely at all considered. 

A stop is called to show once more just how the gage is 
used in marking out the tenon. Work is resumed after 
two minutes of talk and demonstration. 

A stop is also made when the parts removed to make the 
tenon are sawed out; and a demonstration is given, show- 
ing how to saw squarely across the board to make the edges 
of the tenon square when the chisel is applied to remove 
the part. Some boys are careless, sawing too fast. Teacher : 
: ' It never pays to be in too much of a hurry in sawing or 
doing anything else in wood work. Here is a boy who has 
been in so much of a hurry that he has sawed too far [show- 
ing board]. He will have to square up his piece, cut it off, 
and begin all over again. Don't forget, in sawing a board in 
two, to use the bench hook ; in cutting out the tenon parts 
use the vise. Now go to work." 

Boys frequently go to the teacher to ask a question. The 
question is usually what to do, or how to do some definite 
thing. The teacher often refers back to the demonstration, 
asking, " What did we say to do ? " or, " How did we do 
it?" or, "Didn't you get that in your notes?" But he 
always tells or shows the boy if he cannot recall. 

At the sound of the bell work stops where it is, to be 
resumed next time. Most boys have about finished the step 
assigned. Two have finished before the end of the period. 
These are put to work as helpers for the slower ones, tell- 
ing them what to do, but not doing it for them. 

The lesson can be considered as to motivation and initia- 
tive only in relationship to the making of the project as a 
whole, which probably occupied six or seven lessons. Ex- 
cept as the activity involved is in itself pleasurable to most 



36 Standards for Instruction 

boys, and that die project might be used, there is no evi- 
dence whatever of motivation for the project. The follow- 
ing facts show how very little opportunity there is for 
either motivation or initiative: 

a. The book racks are prescribed for a 1 l by the teacher. 

b. They are all uniform in materials, design, and finish. 

c. There is no adaptation of the project in any particu- 
lar to any specific place or purpose. 

d. The method of instruction is dictation. Questions of 
what to do, or how to do it, do not have to be thought of 
or asked. If the boys wait until the appropriate time, they 
are both told and shown every step. 

The organization of the material in the lessons on the 
project is based purely upon the technical sequence of proc- 
esses involved in construction. So far as observed, the 
pupil is not made conscious of this organization at all. 
Apparently the organization to the boy is simply this, 
" What do we do first in making this book rack? " This 
done, it is, " What do we do next ? " repeated step by step, 
until the project is finished. The boys' notes were evi- 
dence of this. They added the new steps as given from day 
to day. They had not organized the problem as a whole 
and seen its main parts in their relationships. There were 
no summaries, and there was no grouping of facts into 
" points " in the lesson. 

The values stressed in the class were: 

a. Accuracy in technical processes. 

b. Correctness in the use of tools. 

c. Excellence of finished products. 

d. Speed in securing results. 

Attention to detail is the necessary factor in gaining these 
ends. These details all stand on about the same level. No 
broad principles are offered and no attention is called to 
certain most crucial parts of the undertakings; but there 
is simply a direct application of detailed instructions, mak- 
ing for immediate technical excellence. There is no atten- 



Application to Particular Recitations 37 

tion whatever given to the body of thought included in the 
related fields of industry, geography, or civic and social life, 
which should give these projects their appropriate evalua- 
tion in the elementary school. 

The recitation was distinctly on a low plane, inasmuch 
as it provided for motive in only the most general way; 
paid almost no attention to individuality and initiative; 
showed no tendency to bring the multitude of ideas into a 
few large groups, and ignored relative values, or values in 
general, entirely. Possibly it may seem good to some per- 
sons ; but it was good only in the sense that it accomplished 
several of the minor purposes of instruction — while en- 
dangering those of higher value. 

A LESSON IN DRAWING 

Grade, 8A; 37 boys. Problem, working drawing for a 
piece of bent gas pipe. 

Teacher : " Get out your drawing materials and mount a 
piece of drawing paper with thumb tacks. Today we shall 
make a working drawing for a piece of gas pipe bent like 
this" (draws the form on the blackboard). "Its total 
length is to be 8 inches and the two parts connected at the 
turn 2 inches apart. It is one-inch pipe. What will be 
the total width of the piece?" A boy answers, "Four 
inches." 

Teacher: "Our scale is to be J4. How long will the 
drawing be?" "Four inches." "How wide?" "Two 
inches." 

Teacher : " Now, first, rule your margin lines. How far 
from the edge of your paper will these be?" "One-half 
inch." " Yes. Mark off the distance with your rulers ; 
then be sure to use your T square and triangle to make the 
lines. Then make your ' thumb nail ' sketch in the upper 
left-hand corner." 

The boys proceed as directed, knowing what to do 
from previous experience. Meantime, the teacher makes 



38 Standards for Instruction 

a diagram on the blackboard representing a sheet of paper 
with margin lines. She then goes about among the boys, 
insisting on the correct use of the T square and triangle. 
Her method is simply telling them what to do. The boys 
find the use of the triangle, for making vertical lines, rather 
difficult. When the margin lines are all made, and the 
thumb nail sketch is finished, the teacher then asks them 
what to do first. 

Boy: " Make the construction lines." " Yes. How shall 
we make them?" " Very light." "Yes. Place the first 
horizontal line two inches from the top; where will the 
bottom line be? " Boy : " Four inches." " Is that right? " 
Another boy : " No. Two inches." " Why? " " The pipe 
is four inches and the scale y 2 . That makes the drawing 
only 2 inches." Teacher : " Right. Now put in the bottom 
line." The teacher makes her own drawing on the black- 
board as the instructions are agreed upon. She talks to 
the boys about the dimensions and the lines to be used, 
developing her sketch as she proceeds. Questions of why 
are given some consideration. Boys are asked to come to 
the board, at times, to show what they mean by the use 
of her drawing. When her own drawing is finished, she 
tells them to begin work on their own. She moves about 
among them, helping them to get dimensions right and to 
use properly the T square and triangle. In getting dimen- 
sions, she asks questions leading them to see answers 
themselves. 

When the construction lines are all in, the teacher stops 
them all and has a boy come to the blackboard to put the 
sketch of the pipe within the lines. This is all quite simple 
and is easily finished. She stops him, when his first line 
is made no heavier than the construction line, to ask him, 
"What kind of a line should you use?" He replies at 
once, " A heavy line," and makes heavy lines. The boys 
are then told to put in their own sketches. 

Another view of the pipe is then taken up. The teacher 
bends a piece of wire, which happens to be on the desk, 



Application to Particular Recitations 39 

into the desired shape and holds it up with one end toward 
the boys. They are asked what they see with the pipe held 
so, and then how to represent it. Construction lines are 
made, using the original horizontal lines projected. The 
teacher makes the whole sketch on the board, and the boys 
then follow with theirs. Before all have quite finished 
the bell rings. 

With this development of what to do, and how to do it, 
and with the copy on the board before them, it is almost 
impossible for the boys to make a mistake. The papers 
show good results. 

The project is purely formal. There is no connection 
whatever made between the drawing and the execution of 
the problem in the shop. 

Not a single healthy provision for motive can be found 
in this lesson. This is shown by the following facts : 

a. The teacher announced the subject of the drawing. 

b. The drawing was not to be used as a basis for 

construction. 

c. The particular subject had no direct relationship to 

anything that had gone before in the drawing or 
construction work. 

d. No connection was pointed out between this problem 

and the industrial activities which it illustrates. It 
was an isolated unit of drawing without purpose 
to these boys. 

Likewise, there was no provision for the exercise of 
initiative : 

a. The problem as a whole was prescribed. 

b. The positions and dimensions were prescribed. 

c. The procedure was definitely uniform. 

d. The method was dictation. 

In organization, the lesson represented a mere sequence 
of steps in the process of constructing the drawing. These 
included, roughly: 



40 Standards for Instruction 

a. Stating the aim or problem by the teacher. 

b. Ruling the drawing paper for the margin lines. 

c. Making the " thumb nail " sketch. 

d. Drawing construction lines. 

e. Drawing in the object in heavy lines. 

f. Indicating dimensions on the finished drawing. 

This is typical of a plan which might apply as a sequence 
in procedure for any simple working drawing. As a means 
of getting an immediate drawing, well done technically 
under dictation, the results were excellent. 

As to relative values, the features emphasized were: 

a. Accuracy in form and dimensions. 

b. Correctness in the use of drawing instruments. 

c. A knowledge of the meaning of the forms and di- 

mensions used in the drawing. 

Questions other than these did not arise. The relation 
of this problem to the industrial world, the values within 
the field of draftsmanship of the ends stressed, the making 
of blue prints as used by the industries, and all other ques- 
tions not included in getting as much finished work as 
possible on the paper within the period were omitted 
entirely. 

Again, so far as the lesson itself gives any evidence, it 
lacks the elements that place instruction on the higher 
plane. 

If the teacher had aimed to introduce the pupils into the 
field of mechanical drawing in a way that would make 
them interested in it, and perhaps inclined both to study 
the excellence of such drawings, as seen in advertisements, 
and to produce others themselves in connection with their 
own needs, she would have selected some task likely to 
interest them in one of these ways. And she would have 
tried to find some plan that could be used later as a basis 
for actual construction. 

If she had appreciated the worth of individuality and 
initiative, she might have allowed several different objects 



Application to Particular Recitations 41 

to be drawn; or, if the class were not ready for that, she 
might have allowed one object to vary in minor details, 
according to the abilities and inclinations of different pupils. 
Also, she would have avoided dictation and uniformity of 
procedure, so that the pupils might feel and exercise their 
self-reliance. 

If she had understood the value of organization, the task 
would have been plainly one of a group having a common 
purpose; and related knowledge acquired in previous pe- 
riods, that would have proved helpful here, might have been 
recalled by the pupils, with their attention especially di- 
rected to its ordering and perspective. Also, the steps in 
the performance of the new task might have been sepa- 
rately named and described. 

Finally, if the weighing of values had held high rank in 
her mind, though she need not have neglected accuracy 
and correctness, i.e., technique; yet she would frequently 
have directed their attention beyond such details, to the 
blue prints and later construction. In this way she would 
have kept the need of accuracy and correctness before them, 
while giving them also some standards for judging the 
relative values of all these items. 

It is the entire absence of these broader ideas and of the 
spirit that goes with them, the absence of all tendency to 
connect knowledge and ability with the life that gives them 
worth, which places this recitation, like the former, on a 
low plane. 

A rough parallel to this kind of instruction would be 
found in literature, if children were brought only to the 
point of pronouncing and defining each word correctly 
without reference to the broader ideas in the selections or 
to a taste for the field. Again, it would be paralleled in 
composition, if children learned to write each sentence cor- 
rectly, without either acquiring a knowledge of the princi- 
ples of composition, or reaching a point where they have 
any ideas to express, or feeling any interest in the method 
of presenting thoughts to other persons. 



42 Standards for Instruction 



ARITHMETIC LESSON IN GRADE I A 

In a certain iA grade the arithmetic lesson consisted of 
a drill on the addition table of i's. The teacher gave the 
addends of the table in order, beginning with i and i ; after 
each combination she called upon some child to give the 
sum. She had not gone far before a pupil failed to give 
the proper answer. The teacher said, " No wonder ! You 
can't think when you are not sitting up straight." The 
second failure brought forth the remark, " You can't think 
when you have your hand in your pocket." 

There was no problem before the pupils that required 
solution. Even the motive that would have been present 
had the work presented any new difficulties was lacking. 
There was no recognition of values, because the instruction 
was unrelated to any specific things of value in their lives. 
There was organization, in the sense that the facts desired 
were grouped in tables, and the table of i's was to be en- 
tirely or largely mastered before the table of 2's was under- 
taken. But that is the logical organization of the adult and 
just the kind that is repellent to children. No initiative 
was exercised by the children. 

The entire period was characterized by a lack of interest 
that could have no other effect than to make the children 
dislike the subject. 

In considering how our standards might be met in first- 
grade arithmetic, we see the need of abandoning such sys- 
tematic instruction and of approaching number as it is 
actually used by children ; for example, in connection with 
scoring in games, and with the weighing and measuring 
of actual objects, confining the combinations to small num- 
bers. In that case, the table of i's and 2's would be com- 
bined with some of the others, thereby securing some variety 
in the study and showing its naturalness. Motive would 
thus be provided for, and with it would come some atten- 
tion to relative values and some possibility of initiative. 
Organization of these facts is least needed. Since they are 



Application to Particular Recitations 43 

finally to be used entirely independently of one another 
anyway, there is no need whatever of grouping them into 
a table, except as that grouping may be a minor means of 
introducing variety. But drill upon such a table, over and 
over, is the extreme of abstractness. The recitation as held 
is a good illustration of the kind of instruction that stulti- 
fies children while giving them knowledge. 

ARITHMETIC LESSON IN GRADE 8b 

This was a class of forty girls. 

The subject for the lesson was a review of bank dis- 
count. The class had studied bank discount in the yA 
grade, and in the 8A grade they had had business forms, 
including promissory notes payable at banks, written and 
discounted. 

The lesson began with the assignment of circles as the 
topic for the next day. It was required to find the diameter 
when the circumference was given ; also, the circumference 
when the diameter was given, and the area. Then the class 
was asked, " What is a promissory note ? ' : Several pupils 
replied by repeating a more or less formal definition of a 
note. Others were asked to repeat the form of interest- 
bearing and non-interest-bearing notes. Following this, 
there were brief references to certain terms employed. 
After that, they were supplied with books and told to 
work problems 9, 10, 11, and 12 on a given page. The 
problems were statements of dates and amounts, all in- 
volving the same principles. 

The girls worked with earnestness, and throughout the 
lesson there was a healthy spirit of sympathy between 
teacher and class. They had been told to check up their 
results by the answers given in the back part of the book. 
Very soon there was a group of them, waiting their turn 
to receive assistance from the teacher. Some of those who 
had a problem correct were asked to help others, and the 
period closed while this work was in progress. 



44 Standards for Instruction 

What were the educational values of the recitation? As 
it was conducted, certain isolated facts that might serve 
for examination at the end of the term, and that might 
possibly at some time prove useful, were presented. In 
reviewing them the motive of the pupils was ignored, mem- 
ory being mainly appealed to ; and during the forty minutes 
no pupil expressed any opinion or took any initiative in a 
way worth mentioning. The value was slight, to say the 
least. 

What might have been accomplished? The pupils being 
girls, they would probably forget how to solve problems in 
bank discount long before wanting to make any practical 
use of it. For them there could hardly be much purpose 
in the review of the arithmetical processes alone. 

But the function of a bank as a public institution, par- 
ticularly some of the advantages in which the public are 
directly concerned and which can be easily comprehended, 
might make this a topic of much general worth and hence 
of interest to these girls. They might be interested in the 
conditions under which a bank lends money, the security 
necessary, the rules for interest, the need of promptness in 
payments, and a comparison of the advantages of borrow- 
ing money at a bank with the advantages of borrowing it 
elsewhere. In brief, the value of the topic is found in its 
various relations to ordinary persons. If it has such rela- 
tions — numerous and close — it will appeal to the motives 
of young people, will require judgment of values as well 
as organization of facts, and will allow the exercise of 
initiative. The central idea would still be quantity; but 
arithmetical processes themselves would be subordinated 
to questions more worth study. 

There are certainly many other topics in arithmetic far 
more valuable for children of this age than bank discount; 
so many, indeed, that this topic should receive no attention 
in the elementary school. 



Application to Particular Recitations 45 



A SERIES OF LESSONS IN MUSIC 

The following statements are the result of ten lessons, 
ranging from the first grade through 7B, in the same school, 
and all given by a supervisor of music. As the same plan 
underlies all the lessons, we shall describe it, giving illus- 
trations from different grades. 

(a) First Kind of Exercise 

The first work consisted of exercises in breathing and 
tone production. The children in the first grade were told 
to take in a full breath and sing a pleasing tone while let- 
ting out the breath, imitating a tone given by the teacher. 
In the upper grades similar exercises were carried on by 
simply saying, " Inhale and exhale," the teacher singing 
the model tone again. The pitch of these tones was high 
and of good quality, and it produced a pleasing effect. 
Sometimes the tone was sustained, sometimes a scale was 
sung down and up. In the upper grades changes as to 
various vowel tones were included. 

(b) Second Kind of Exercise 

After the tone exercise the children took their seats, and 
technical questions with reference to pitch and rhythm were 
introduced. For questions in iB children were drilled on 
the numbers 1, 6, 4 downward from the upper octave. In 
the second grade the teacher spent the time attempting to 
have the children appreciate two beats to the half note. 
In the third grade notes and rests were put on the black- 
board. Children also sang the Mother Goose words to 
various dictations at the board, thus showing some inde- 
pendence of the syllable names. In the fifth grade the 
nature of the slur and tie was taken up. In other grades 
sharp four, flat seven, and divided beat were considered. 
This work was done at the blackboard. 



46 Standards for Instruction 

(c) Third Kind of Exercise 

This was followed in the grades from the third on by a 
third type, in which the book was used, tests being given 
to show the power of the children to sing at sight. 

(d) Fourth Kind of Exercise 

A fourth type of work was singing some song that had 
already been learned. Occasionally this fourth step would 
follow immediately after the vocal exercise. 

The relations of the teacher with her pupils were very 
friendly and happy. The order and attention were all that 
could be desired, from a formal point of view. The in- 
struction being given by the supervisor, carefully prepared 
plans were furnished by her to each teacher, indicating the 
successive steps, whether in the tone study of the first, the 
rhythm or pitch work of the second, the sight reading of 
the third, or the song singing of the fourth. 

Organization 

While each type of exercise was, no doubt, logically re- 
lated to the same type held on the preceding day, in a given 
class, there was little sign of relationship of the four types 
to one another within any given lesson. For example, the 
voice exercises were independent of the study of pitch and 
rhythm; the latter study was unrelated to the sight read- 
ing in the book; and all three lacked connection with the 
song singing. Thus each lesson presented four separate 
strata, and a lesson of twelve minutes was controlled by 
four distinct aims rather than by one. 

Provision for Motive 

Ostensibly, the object of all the exercises was to learn 
to sing, but while the relation of each task to this object 
might have been clear to the teacher of music, it could 
hardly be appreciated by the pupils. 

If the tone and vowel exercises had been followed im- 



Application to Particular Recitations 47 

mediately by the song, so that the children could have real- 
ized that the deep breathing and proper pronunciation of 
the vowel affected the way the tone sounded, the purpose 
of what was done would have been obvious, and the chil- 
dren could have cooperated toward accomplishing the end. 
Or if the technical drill on rhythm and pitch had dealt 
with the specific difficulties of the sight-singing exercise 
that was to follow it ; or if the order of these two had been 
reversed; or if a song had been sung and its difficult parts 
had been taken for special practise, in order to get better 
rendering; then the notation problems and other technical 
work could have been mastered under the influence of a 
normal motive. 

By failing to relate the various forms of practise to the 
ends they served in better song singing, the plan that was 
followed cut out all possibility of having the pupils — ex- 
cept the most musical ones — realize any purpose in what 
they were doing, except when they were actually singing 
songs. Here the pleasure in the song justified the activity. 

Consideration of Values 

This omission of purpose for the pupils made it also 
impossible to exercise their judgment with reference to the 
success of their efforts. Each exercise was peculiarly ar- 
bitrary. For instance, nowhere in the ten lessons was there 
any intimation that the reason the high tones were sung 
first was to enable the children to bring the qualities of 
these pleasant tones into the lower part of the voice, or 
that the vocal exercise was a means for them to produce 
better low tones. The result was that in the song singing 
the lower tones had the chest qualities that the vocal ex- 
ercise was peculiarly adapted to counteract. If the pupils 
had realized the relation between the vocal exercises and 
the low tones desired, they would not only have had a 
purpose for their work in these exercises, but there would 
have been a basis for judgment, on their part, of the kind 
of tone they were producing in their songs. 



48 Standards for Instruction 

The same principle holds in the relation of the technical 
exercises to the purpose they served in the more adequate 
reading of the songs, or exercises. For instance, if the 
necessity for holding a tone two beats grew out of the fact 
that the song required it, and that it did not sound as well 
without it, a purpose would have been established for learn- 
ing to hold a tone two beats long when necessary. But 
to practise two beats, as an abstract exercise in a series 
of mathematical tonal relationships — while it might event- 
ually develop a technique that could be applied — almost 
entirely destroys the advantage that would come from the 
awakening of the pupil's own thought in relation to what 
is being done. 

Provision for Initiative 

On the few occasions that the children were asked to 
volunteer any preference, especially in reference to songs 
that they wished to sing, they showed interest; and they 
would probably have responded freely if there had been 
more development in the instruction. But such spontaneity 
was prevented by the fact that most of the time was de- 
voted to independent technical exercises that made no ap- 
peal to their imagination or preference. 

Summary 

The series of lessons was admirably conducted, so far 
as technique alone is concerned. But they were poorly 
organized, in that they had been planned with reference to 
the purposes as the adult sees them, and left the pupil in 
the dark as to the object of the various activities required 
of him. This lack of motive made h impossible to appeal 
to his judgment, for he could have estimated the quality 
of his own performances only in the light of the objects 
that they were expected to accomplish. Finally, as the 
pupil was not an intelligent cooperator in the process, little 
spontaneity was secured. 



Application to Particular Recitations 49 

PHYSICAL TRAINING TYPICAL LESSONS 

GRADE II BOYS 

Class stand. Open windows. 

Arm stretching — 8. 

Marching. 

Breathing — 4. 

Knee bending — 16. 

Head turning — 8. 
Class sit. Close windows. 

The teacher, with syllabus in hand, directed the class in 
a mechanical, lifeless manner. During the marching she 
paused between the counts to call out, " Chest high — Keep 
your shoulders down — Push your hips back." These co- 
ordinations being beyond the voluntary control of a small 
child, the results were exaggerated, faulty, and unnatural 
positions. As classes were passing through a hall, a prin- 
cipal's attention was called to these positions. His reply 
was, " Thank goodness, the children can't hold them long." 

During this period the boys' eyes were fastened upon the 
teacher. They stood at " attention " for the entire period. 
Their faces did not radiate a suggestion of interest in the 
things they were doing. There was a feeling of severe 
effort in the room. The teacher's manner and voice inten- 
sified this. When the children sat there was a sigh of re- 
lief from both teacher and pupils. Asked if the children 
enjoyed the gymnastic work, the teacher said, " Not as 
much as they do games, but they have to have it." 

GRADE IV GIRLS 

Class stand. 

Arm stretching sideways — 16. 
Breathing — 4. 
Charging forward — 8. 
Head turning — 16. 
Trunk bending — 16. 



50 Standards for Instruction 

During the time this lesson was being given the children 
were rigid, quiet, and unnatural. Not once did a head turn 
unless at the teacher's command. Their hands were held 
close to their sides, and not an eye was turned away from 
the teacher. The rhythm was indicated by the snapping 
of the teacher's fingers, and not once during the period did 
she vary the rhythm. The commands were given in a cold, 
harsh voice, and the teacher took no part in the exercises. 
She stood apart from the class and read the exercises from 
the syllabus. At the command, " Class — sit," the little 
girls noiselessly sat, took their books, the windows were 
closed, and the day's work went on. 

When the teacher was questioned regarding the relative 
amount of time given to games, she explained with em- 
phasis that she had given her last game in the class room. 
The time was when she attempted this, but experience had 
convinced her of the folly of such procedure. Her aim is 
to make the children feel that when they enter the class 
room they are there for work. She believes that work 
and play form a poor combination in the class room. Now, 
they have gymnastic work each day in the class room, and 
the children are allowed to play in the court a few minutes 
during the afternoon recess. They are impressed with the 
fact that this period is in no way related to their class-room 
work. 

GRADE VIII — BOYS 

A relay race had been planned for this class. Hearing 
the good news, the boys commented upon the situation as 
they entered the room. By way of explaining this disorder 
the teacher said that he could always tell when the boys 
were expecting a game. But the enthusiasm waned, some- 
what, when they were put through a ten-minute drill with 
iron dumbbells, preceding the race. The exercises were: 

Marching — Facing. 
Charging with trunk twisting. 
Trunk bending. 



Application to Particular Recitations 5 1 

These exercises are typical of those usually given. The 
lesson was carried forward with military precision, and 
with many indications of fatigue. When the command was 
given to " place bells," little time was lost and spirits im- 
mediately revived. 

The relay race followed and was enjoyed by all. It was 
characterized by a spirit of good will and wholesome 
competition. 

This instruction — so far as the first two exercises are 
concerned — not only fails to meet the standards set up, 
but in very important respects it directly opposes them. 

There are great possibilities in the games; but they are 
so slighted, in the time devoted to them, as well as in other 
respects, that they are treated more as a means of recrea- 
tion than as an instrument of education capable of accom- 
plishing the highest aims of teaching by the use of maxi- 
mum skill. 



HYGIENE TYPICAL LESSONS 

Grade VI, boys; grade VII, boys; other lessons also. 

Above the fifth grade the work in hygiene in this par- 
ticular school is carried on according to the departmental 
plan, one twenty-minute period per week being given to 
this work. 

For the lesson observed the text used was Eadie's 
" Physiology and Hygiene for Children. " Each boy was 
given a book. As the teacher called the names, the boys 
stood, and with much difficulty read the formal, technical 
text-book discussion of the following topics : 

Drinks which contain alcohol. 

What is alcohol ? 

How malt liquors are made. 

How distilled liquors are made. 

What alcohol is like. 

Is alcoholic liquor a food? 



52 Standards for Instruction 

During the lesson a few questions were asked. Among 
them, "What is alcohol?" One boy replied, "Alcohol is 
a poison medicine." After he had read " How malt and 
distilled liquors are made," he seemed to have gained no 
clearer views on the subject. 

The reading proceeded in a monotonous way for twenty 
minutes. In that time most of the boys had read at least 
one paragraph aloud, and had struggled manfully with 
carbon dioxid, ferment, yeast, vapor distillation, and other 
words equally suggestive. 

Throughout the lesson there was felt the influence of 
law-required instruction. The subject-matter had been 
chosen, not because it seemed related to the needs and pur- 
poses of the children concerned, but because conformity 
to law had made the use of such material necessary. The 
teaching was done in obedience to law, in a perfunctory 
manner, and without interest on the part of either teacher 
or pupils. 

The argument is advanced that such instruction is justi- 
fied by the fact that it is required by law. The law does 
require that instruction in the effects of alcoholic drinks 
and narcotics be given below the second year of the high 
school and above the third year of the elementary school, 
" with suitable text-books in the hands of all pupils, for 
not less than three lessons a week for ten or more weeks, 
or the equivalent of the same, in each year." The law does 
not state, however, that the work shall be confined to one 
text-book; nor that it shall be given in a mechanical way, 
entirely unrelated to life and to the other subjects in the 
course of study; nor that the thirty lessons shall be given 
consecutively. We believe that, if these required lessons 
were planned as they might be, and wisely distributed, the 
required number could be given and the required subject- 
matter discussed without placing undue emphasis on the 
phases of this subject that are not only uninteresting but 
unwholesome. 

Discussion of the organization of subject-matter would 



Application to Particular Recitations 53 

involve only a criticism of the text-book used, for there was 
not the slightest deviation from the text-book arrange- 
ment. No topic was given more emphasis than another. 
If the teacher felt that the making of malt liquors should 
be given more stress than the making of distilled liquors, 
his manner did not indicate it. At the close of the period 
he was asked his opinion regarding the value of such in- 
struction. He replied, " Worthless." 

In five other lessons observed in this building, two 7 A 
grades considered the subject of bones and digestion; two 
7B grades, the heart and respiration; and the 8A class, 
alcoholic drinks and tobacco. All of these recitations were 
conducted in the same manner. The boys read, and the 
teacher interrupted with occasional questions bearing di- 
rectly upon the reading and involving text-book answers. 

During a lesson on the heart and circulation, the boys 
struggled with the size, position, shape, and structure of 
the heart, the blood vessels, the composition of the blood, 
and the process of circulation. After they had read the 
paragraph describing the red and white corpuscles, the 
teacher asked, "What are the red corpuscles for?" The 
answer came promptly, " The red corpuscles are to fight 
the white ones." Although the boys had their books open 
before them and had only a moment before read about the 
work of the red corpuscles, few realized that the answer 
given did not agree with the teaching of the text. 

The lesson with the 7A boys included the following 
topics : 

Uses of the bones. 

Form of the bones. 

Structure of the bones. 

Materials of which bones are made. 

Growth and repair of bones. 

Bones of the head. 

As in the other recitations, the boys read " by turn." 
Answers to the questions asked indicated that the pupils 



54 Standards for Instruction 

were giving little thought to the subject-matter. They were 
simply pronouncing the words which they saw on the pages 
of the text. When the teacher was questioned regarding 
the value of such material, he stated without hesitation that 
it had little practical worth, but that he was giving it in 
order to conform to the prescribed course of study. The 
syllabus for the 7 A grade, while dealing mainly with the 
anatomical structure of bones, etc., does, however, suggest 
some few practical applications of the subject-matter 
studied, namely, round shoulders, spinal curvature, and 
adjustment of desks. The teacher's criticism may have 
been just, the material may have been inappropriate, but 
he had failed nevertheless to make use of the few vital 
points of contact with the child's life which the syllabus 
affords. 

The criticism passed upon the work in hygiene in this 
school may seem severe; yet it is typical of the work done 
in many of the schools. In general, it fails to meet any 
one of the standards we have been using. 



CHAPTER VI 

GENERAL APPLICATION OF THESE STAND- 
ARDS IN KINDERGARTEN AND ELEMEN- 
TARY INSTRUCTION 

METHOD OF JUDGING THE RELIABILITY OF CONCLUSIONS 

THE analysis of the recitations presented in the preced- 
ing pages illustrates how instruction can be judged 
by use of the standards proposed. Now we come to the 
conclusions reached touching the quality of instruction 
throughout Greater New York, as judged by these standards. 

These conclusions are the immediate result of facts gained 
at first hand. Kindergartens and schools, taken at random, 
have been extensively visited, and teachers have been per- 
sonally interviewed, in order that instruction in the class 
room, and the attitude of the teachers themselves, might 
be directly studied. 

But it was realized that the quantity of data secured in 
this way would necessarily form an insufficient basis for 
conclusions in regard to the work of 15,000 teachers. To 
collect enough facts, by direct observation, on which to base 
judgments that could be trusted would require a much 
larger number of expert observers and a far longer period 
of time than the plan of investigation allowed. 

The conclusions thus reached needed, therefore, thorough 
verification. And it was not difficult to discover valuable 
means for doing this. 

The original ability of the teacher is only one of the 
things that determine the quality of class-room instruc- 
tion. The abilities of her superior officers are, likewise, 
important factors. The curriculum is a great aid or an 

55 



56 Standards for Instruction 

obstacle to good results, according to the insight shown 
in selecting its subject-matter; the syllabi, which inter- 
pret this curriculum and offer suggestions on method, 
are a guide and a source of inspiration or depression to 
teachers according to the definiteness of statement and the 
breadth of view that they evince; and, finally, the super- 
vision by principals and superintendents tends to produce 
an enthusiasm that will manifest itself outside of school 
in extra preparation, and in the class by alertness to each 
pupil's condition; or it tends in the opposite direction. 
These other influences, taken together, must very greatly 
affect the atmosphere that surrounds the teacher. With- 
out their positive support instruction can hardly be good; 
and if they are doing their work fairly well instruction is 
not likely to be poor. 

An extensive study of these factors, therefore, has fur- 
nished the data necessary for verifying the conclusions 
reached by direct observation. If these factors are found 
— owing to the quality and quantity of their influence — 
to oppose the conclusions previously reached, then those 
conclusions are rightly subject to serious question. If, on 
the other hand, they plainly verify those conclusions; if, 
indeed, their influence is so potent that it would seem suf- 
ficient to produce the very conditions that have led to the 
conclusions — then the conclusions may be considered to 
be reliable. 

These other factors, therefore, are related to the state- 
ments here made, as proofs; and judgment as to the re- 
liability of these statements must be waived by the reader 
until the proofs, that follow in later chapters, have been 
carefully examined. 

INSTRUCTION IN THE KINDERGARTEN 

Inculcation of Purposes in Children 

Specific and childlike aims tending to call out a high de- 
gree of effort are very prominent in the kindergartens. 



General Application of Standards 57 

A certain form is folded to serve as the mount for mother's 
valentine, to be presented at the valentine party of the 
Mothers' Meeting; a bag is folded and sewed, to be used 
in the postman's game; little houses are carefully cut and 
pasted for the group work in which a city street is repre- 
sented; blocks are evenly laid by another group of chil- 
dren to represent the sidewalk of that same street; it is 
suggested that a certain lullaby would be nice to sing to 
the baby at home, and the children put new sweetness and 
interest into the singing. 

These detailed purposes play directly into the broader 
aims that are plainly in evidence in the kindergarten. Such 
are: a love of stories, of plants and animals, of games, 
of objects of beauty, and of constructive work — a love 
that finds expression in little deeds, such as those named, 
and that leads to more far-reaching hopes and plans. 

Attention to Organization 

Most kindergartners endeavor to organize the more or 
less random and instinctive activities of even their young- 
est children. At the kindergarten age the organization of 
ideas takes place largely through the organization of ac- 
tivity, the ordered act being considered the very best evi- 
dence of ordered thought. A representative play is worked 
out bit by bit, until a reasonably finished whole results; a 
simple little dance is created out of selected movements; 
a piece of group building is undertaken wherein each child's 
work contributes to the whole, but must occupy its own 
subordinate position; all such efforts call for organization 
in the same sense as does the high school student's essay. 
The children are less conscious of the process, but they 
profit by it just as truly. One seldom visits a kindergarten 
without observing that the kindergartner herself is carry- 
ing the idea of organization constantly in mind, and with- 
out observing also that the children are doing the same 
thing, to some extent, in their attention to sequence, to the 
interrelation of facts, and to grouping. 



58 Standards for Instruction 

Indeed, one of the most serious faults of the kindergarten 
is found in its overdevotion to sequence, particularly to 
the logical sequence of the adult, which is probably even 
more a source of torment to some children in the kinder- 
garten than to any in the elementary school. The kinder- 
garten lesson, described elsewhere, is an illustration. 

But while there are such excesses here and there, we are 
convinced that on the whole an emphasis is placed upon 
organization of ideas in the kindergarten that is generally 
in accord with the worth placed upon it in life outside. 

Attention to Relative Values — Imagination and Reasoning 

The kindergartner makes noticeable provision for rela- 
tive values. Emotional response, appreciation, preserva- 
tion of an inquiring attitude of mind, socialized behavior, 
seem to be regarded in the regular instruction as of at 
least equal importance with knowledge. The general view- 
point of the kindergartner is that whatever is done in the 
kindergarten is of value to the extent that it counts, or 
functions, in life. Hence the tendency to weigh worth is 
common here, with both teachers and children. 

Again, however, a defect is to be noted; namely, an 
extreme devotion on the teacher's part to technique, to 
precision, and to exact imitation now and then, which 
tends to influence the children to forget all about the real 
worth of things. This is true particularly in the use of 
materials, and is not representative of the work as a whole. 

Provision for Initiative and Independence 

Kindergarten teachers have an enviable opportunity for 
encouraging the exercise of initiative and individuality of 
children, because uniformity is not demanded. Without 
a fixed program and without rigid requirements of ac- 
complishment, there is every incentive for teachers to allow 
pupils to do original and creative work; and this oppor- 



General Application of Standards 59 

tunity is not lost. It is common for children to set up aims, 
to organize their activities, to suggest subject-matter or 
experience that forms the basis for their play and work, to 
choose songs, stories, games, and materials, and to lead in 
many of the undertakings. 

While this seems to be the dominant tendency, it is also 
evident that in quite a number of the kindergartens dicta- 
tion exercises and ready-made play that require complete 
submission on the part of the pupil, are so prominent that 
they directly oppose self-expression and self-reliance. 

On the whole, there are two very distinct currents ob- 
servable in the kindergartens. The one represents a slavish 
devotion to the adult point of view in the selection of 
subject-matter and to adult logic in its presentation, re- 
sulting in rigid organization, ignoring of relative values, 
and neglect of the child himself. The other shows the 
opposite tendencies. Which of these two shall finally pre- 
vail is a matter of grave concern, requiring the constant 
watchfulness of all who are especially interested in this 
field. 

But at present we feel little hesitation in saying that the 
kindergarten, as a whole, meets the test of the four stand- 
ards set up, in a satisfactory manner; and that therefore the 
instruction there rests on the higher plane, i. e., it is good 
at present and promising for the future. 



INSTRUCTION IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 

The Working Theory of the New York City Elementary 
Schools 

Back of the multitude of ideas and practises related to 
the elementary schools there are four convictions that are 
remarkably prevalent. One pertains to the necessity of 
uniformity, and the thought runs thus: 

There are approximately 14,000 teachers in the elemen- 
tary schools. That is an enormous number. All reports 



60 Standards for Instruction 

in regard to them, all communications to them, must be 
systematized. All plans to influence them must be made 
for the mass. 

There are approximately 650,000 children in the elemen- 
tary schools, sometimes over 4,000 in a single building. The 
absolute necessity of mass action in fire drills is self-evident; 
its reasonableness in filling and emptying buildings, under 
ordinary circumstances, as well as its need in the external 
handling of large classes, is likewise evident. 

Turning to the instruction itself — if teachers are to be 
rated for advancement, as they must be, instruction must be 
standardized; if the children must be rated in their attain- 
ments, as they must be, the results of instruction must also 
be standardized; hence, one curriculum, one time allot- 
ment for studies, one method, for all the schools; that, so 
far as possible, is a necessity ! The degree to which stand- 
ardization is established, and mass action secured, is one of 
the measures of efficiency. 

The second conviction pertains to the essence of the 
course of study. A curriculum may, and no doubt should, 
contain many things, of many kinds; but its very core is 
found in those facts and those kinds of skill that can be- 
come automatically usable. 

The third conviction pertains to the factor in scholarship 
that is most worthy of emphasis. Many things are neces- 
sary to proper study, but the most desirable element is 
accuracy in details. 

The fourth conviction pertains to the time when the 
pupil may be expected to use what he learns in school. 
Of course, some things that are learned, such for example 
as writing, reading, a few facts in geography and in shop 
work, are usable immediately. But that is accidental. The 
school period, on the whole, is a period of storage for the 
unknown future ; it is a period for collecting facts without 
reference to their present use. 

Here, then, is the condensed educational theory of the 
elementary schools: 



General Application of Standards 61 

a. On account of the size of the system, uniformity is 

necessary in teaching, in rating teachers, in hand- 
ling pupils, and in the curriculum. 

b. The principal subject-matter of instruction is what is 

automatically usable. 

c. The leading element in scholarship is accuracy in 

details. 

d. The time for the pupil to use his knowledge acquired 

in school is the distant future, — not now. 

Of course, this theory is not universally accepted ; heretics 
are to be expected in any denomination. Some striking ex- 
ceptions to its spirit are found in the variety of text-books, 
for each study, allowed in the schools; also in some very 
prominent movements within the system, as in the special 
classes for defectives, the outdoor classes, and the indi- 
vidual care of children touching their physical defects. In 
addition, many of the teachers and principals are reluctant 
supporters of the theory. But a majority of both seem at 
least reconciled to it; and most of the superintendents are 
evidently ardent in its support, inasmuch as it originates 
with them. This theory helps to explain the quality of in- 
struction, as we shall see later. 

Effect of Instruction on Children's Purposes 

What is the relation of the teaching to the ambitions and 
plans of children? 

Although problems, as they arise in daily life, are the 
main stimulus to the thinking that goes on in the world, the 
origin of plans and purposes, the instruction in the schools 
is not usually organized around such problems. In compo- 
sition, for instance, it is rare to find pupils writing with 
any purpose beyond satisfying the teacher. Grammar does 
not pretend to make young people conscious of new objects 
in life. Geography consists merely of facts that one may 
some day want — but not now ; arithmetic represents the 
same viewpoint. 



62 Standards for Instruction 

Even in those subjects that naturally appeal to the imagi- 
nation and enthusiasm of children, such as literature, music, 
and shop work, there is a strong tendency to ignore the 
child's attitude. The recitation in literature, described on 
page 25, in which the accurate enunciation and pronun- 
ciation of individual words were the principal things talked 
about, is an example. The instruction of music plainly 
subordinates the children's motives to sight reading, and 
the shop work in the eighth grade allows the sequence of 
tools and of materials rather than child nature to deter- 
mine the choice of objects to be made. 

It is always to be kept in mind that there are striking 
exceptions to the general statements here made. But, judg- 
ing from the instruction observed, there is reason for be- 
lieving that in general the inculcation of purposes in pupils, 
through instruction, is scarcely thought of in the actual 
class-room work. 

Effect of Instruction on Children's Organisation of Ideas 

When we turn to the organization of subject-matter, we 
find certain studies, such as beginning reading — when the 
Ward method is used — arithmetic, music, and most of the 
work in construction, standing for a sequence that is rigid. 
While sequence, as an element in organization, is a good 
thing, this is a sequence of the scientist, not of the child; 
and it usually has little effect upon a child's thinking, be- 
yond causing him to dislike the subject. 

The chief way of testing the influence of instruction on 
children's organization of ideas is to examine into the char- 
acter of their responses to the teacher's questions. If these 
responses are pointed and forceful, the pupils have gotten 
into the habit of looking for a central thought — such as an 
underlying cause in history or geography — grouping their 
facts around it in sequence, and in considerable number. 
If they have not yet succeeded in this, but are striving in 
this direction, their efforts will easily be observable. If the 
teacher is attempting to influence them in this respect, the 



General Application of Standards 63 

fact will be shown also in the pointedness and, particularly, 
in the scope of her questions. 

Our visits to class rooms furnished no evidence that stress 
was being laid upon this matter. The responses of pupils 
were almost invariably brief and scrappy — a condition 
directly favored, rather than opposed, by the character of 
the teacher's questions. 

Effect of Instruction on Children's Weighing of Values 

In visiting schools it is very easy to observe whether or 
not much attention is given to relative values. But the 
writer visited twenty classes, in several different schools, 
before noting the slightest reference to the worth of things. 
Then a teacher in a reading class, feeling dissatisfied with 
the rendering of a certain sentence, said : " You do not 
seem to understand which word is most important in that 
sentence. Which one is, do you think ? " 

The prevailing attitude was that each thing taught, every 
fact, was taught because it was required; the curriculum 
called for it. Being necessary, then — in fact, absolutely 
necessary, practically speaking — what reason was there for 
stopping to discuss its relative importance ? That would be 
superfluous ! What was wanted was results; and there was 
no time to lose. 

Effect of Instruction on Children's Initiative and Self- 
Reliance in General 

It is by no means easy to show how, in the teaching of 
a given topic, the exercise of initiative can be transferred 
from the teacher to the class. But whether such a transfer 
is taking place, or whether at least it is being attempted, is 
very easy to see. Judging from the practise observed, there 
is as a rule almost no planning for the pupil's growth in 
self-reliance or self-expression. The teacher puts the ques- 
tions, makes the corrections, and immediately directs every 
turn that is made. 



64 Standards for Instruction 

In handwork, for example, we find a situation that seems 
typical. Pupils there are not allowed to experiment. To 
a boy who suggested another possible way of doing some- 
thing an instructor was heard to say, "If you know a better 
way than mine, walk right up and instruct the class." Sar- 
casm is the deadly weapon often used by numerous shop 
men to wither any initiative or originality that does appear, 
and to reduce boys to uniform subservience and docility. 

Dictation, as a method of instruction in shop work and 
drawing, is very prominent. The children are told what 
to do and how to do it. Telling is reenforced by demon- 
strations. Usually when pupils cannot follow the verbal 
instructions of the teacher, they may follow or copy draw- 
ings, or detailed instructions from blackboards, charts, 
models, or notes. 

In design there is practically no opportunity for initiative, 
save in choice among several designs offered in a few of 
the schools. Original designs have no place in the present 
plan. Slight variations in finishing or decorating some sew- 
ing projects, some selection as to colors used in weaving 
in the lower grades, slight opportunity for choice of models 
offered to be drawn, and some variation in the finishing of 
the pieces of shop work in the latter part of the course are 
permitted. But the limitations are so stringent that varia- 
tion is discouraged rather than encouraged. 

On the whole, then, the New York City elementary 
schools are not attempting to develop the initiative and 
self-reliance of children through instruction. 

Conclusions upon the Instruction in Elementary Schools 

Thus, not one of the standards proposed for judging in- 
struction is satisfactorily met. Indeed, the working theory 
mentioned above shows attention to be systematically di- 
rected away from these standards. 

Take, for example, the first article in that theory — the 
belief in uniformity. Its influence is directly opposed to 



General Application of Standards 65 

the development of individuality in children; variety is not 
obtained through uniformity. 

The second article of the theory is the belief that what 
is automatically usable constitutes the core of the curricu- 
lum. That belief throws the main emphasis on the formal 
or mechanical portion of the subject-matter; i.e., upon 
symbols in the three R's, location and map drawing in 
geography, dates and minor details in history, reading of 
notes in music, names and superficial description of objects 
in nature study, and technical processes of construction. 
That is just the kind of subject-matter that is commonly 
recognized as deadening to motive, rather than a source 
of it. It is a very necessary part of a curriculum; but it 
must be subordinated to other subject-matter and carried 
by it, if the instruction is to be inspiring. 

The third article of the theory is that the leading element 
in scholarship is accuracy in details. That belief tends to 
divert attention from the grouping of facts according to 
their relations, to the isolated, individual fact. And, special 
merit being attached to details or little things, the larger 
truths, such as must be considered in the principles of the 
various studies, in the deeper causes, in summaries, and in 
broad questions from the teacher, all of which are based on 
an extensive association of ideas, are at a discount. 

And the fourth article is that children are to acquire 
their knowledge, not for present use, but for the unknown 
future. This belief, to the extent that it is acted upon in 
the selection and presentation of subject-matter, destroys 
both the motive for the weighing of values by children and 
the basis for doing it. For the worth of ideas is deter- 
mined by the degree to which they are significant in one's 
life; but, if they are not significant when they are acquired, 
there is no reason for evaluating them, and there is no 
relation to them close enough to furnish a basis for per- 
ceiving their worth. 

We do not assert here that the value of a child's knowl- 
edge is confined entirely, or mainly, to its present use ; nor 



66 Standards for Instruction 

that children are unable to use, and should not use, their 
imaginations, so as to project themselves into the future 
and look at matters somewhat from the social viewpoint. 
But we do say that if children are to consider the value of 
knowledge, they must feel its present significance to them. 

In general, the standards that we have proposed test in- 
struction by the extent to which, through the acquisition 
and application of knowledge, it affects the growth of chil- 
dren in those mental processes or habits that count most 
in actual living. 

On the other hand, the articles of the working theory 
above referred to are not plainly concerned with the growth 
or development of children ; they direct attention primarily 
to finished products in the way of knowledge and technical 
skill. 

According to the standards proposed for judging instruc- 
tion, that now given in the New York City elementary 
schools is — in spite of many exceptions — on a low plane, 
poor in quality, and discouraging for the future. 

It is very important to bear in mind, however, that this 
instruction is no worse than that found in many other 
places. If different standards had been adopted — in fact, 
such as have usually been applied in judging schools — 
very different conclusions might have been reached. But 
if one accepts the standards proposed, one must come to 
the conclusions reached. 

Attitude of Teachers 

A matter intimately connected with the instruction, and 
helping to explain its quality, is the attitude of the rank 
and file of the class-room teachers. That attitude is not 
satisfactory and their thought, according to our findings, 
runs somewhat as follows : 

In the first place, they are hampered by lack of authority 
either to punish unusually troublesome children adequately, 
or to have them punished. The result in many a room is 
a constant struggle to " get on some way or other," leading 



General Application of Standards 67 

to limitless waste of time and energy, and not seldom to 
loss of health by the teacher. 

In the second place, they do not feel free. They are 
given no authoritative voice in helping to select the cur- 
riculum that they must present, or in dividing the time 
among the several studies, or in choosing the text-books 
that they use, or often, even, in determining the methods 
that they follow. On every hand they are told what to 
do and how to do it. 

One reason for these many limitations is the fear, on 
the part of the higher authorities, of serious blunders by 
weak teachers. But the effect is that the teachers as a body 
are treated as weak teachers, and distrusted. 

Under these conditions they cannot be expected to de- 
velop the initiative and individuality of their pupils; they 
are not allowed initiative or self-expression themselves; 
obedience is their leading merit; there is little provision, 
in the entire system, for their own individuality. More 
than that, any independent efforts that they might make 
in the direction of organizing subjects in a new way, or 
of stressing relative values to an unusual degree, or of 
providing for motive in an original manner, would run 
the risk of disapproval by their superiors. 

In the third place, there is lamentable lack of inspiring 
leadership by those persons in authority over them, i. e., the 
principals, special supervisors, and superintendents. The 
main relation of superintendents to them is that of inspec- 
tors merely, or judges, not of helpers; and the principals 
are too busy with other matters, or unable for other rea- 
sons to come to their aid in a vigorous, constructive man- 
ner. In consequence, no one in the system is discussing 
aims and principles with them and showing how these 
should affect their teaching. 

This is the expression of convictions held by teachers. 
There are many exceptions, due partly to the school and 
partly to the individual. But our findings convince us that 
such exceptions are unusual. Our findings further convince 



68 Standards for Instruction 

us that the teachers as a rule are conscientious and energetic, 
but that in respect to their profession they are static and 
depressed. 

Whether or not the attitude of the teachers is justified 
will be, at least in part, revealed later, particularly when 
the curriculum and syllabi for the elementary schools, the 
supervision by principals, and the work of the superin- 
tendents are under discussion. 



CHAPTER VII 
RECOMMENDATIONS 

I. ON UNIFICATION OF KINDERGARTEN AND PRIMARY 
SCHOOL 

THERE is a striking contrast between the kindergarten 
and the elementary school, as the two are now con- 
ducted. The key to the difference is found in two facts: 
(a) that while, in the kindergarten, the acquisition of 
knowledge is regarded as a mere means to larger ends, 
throughout the primary school it is made the dominating 
purpose — the end itself; and (b) that the knowledge ac- 
quired in the kindergarten is chiefly that which can be 
a source of inspiration ; while the knowledge chiefly empha- 
sized in the primary school consists of symbols and formal 
facts, as for example in the three R's and spelling. 

The result is that these two parts of the system fail to 
harmonize. Indeed, they are so unlike in controlling pur- 
poses, curriculum, methods of presentation, in the attitude 
of teachers toward pupils, and even in the appearance of 
the rooms, that the primary school not only abandons im- 
portant lines of influence begun in the kindergarten, but 
tends to nullify them. Such a dualism in the theory and 
practise of educating children — within a single system — 
is most incongruous and wasteful. 

Beyond doubt there is a real difficulty here in the fact 
that a time must come — usually recognized to be at about 
six years of age — when symbols must be attacked with 
vigor. But that is insufficient reason for the almost com- 
plete abandonment of valuable influences for the develop- 
ment of habits that it has required one, two, or three years 

69 



yo Standards for Instruction 

to establish. Both plans can hardly be sound ; and, accord- 
ing to the standards used for judging the quality of instruc- 
tion, it is the elementary school that needs the greater modi- 
fication. The question for serious study therefore is, Can 
the elementary school continue the main lines of work be- 
gun in the kindergarten, while giving mastery over symbols ? 



2. ON LIMITING UNIFORMITY 

The extent to which uniformity is necessary in a great 
system of schools is one of the most important questions 
among those suggested in this part of our report. 

Possibly there cannot be too much uniformity of pro- 
cedure in the business management of the schools, and 
there are weighty arguments in favor of much of it in 
instruction. On the other hand, excellence in method of 
teaching, as commonly conceived by educators, consists in 
the close adjustment of subject-matter to individual ex- 
perience and peculiarities. It thus implies the highest de- 
gree of diversity in practise. Uniformity of system is 
hardly the means of securing this diversity. A system of 
schools, therefore, in which uniformity is believed in and 
practised, without much limit, cannot be expected to reach 
a high degree of excellence. 



3. ON THE STATUS OF THE TEACHER 

The degree of freedom of the teacher should be more 
definitely fixed. If obedience is to be one of her (his) 
principal virtues, then every one concerned should under- 
stand that fact. On the other hand, if a considerable de- 
gree of freedom on her (his) part is recognized to be 
necessary, as a condition of developing self-expression and 
self-reliance among pupils, and of securing the teacher's 
own growth, then a well-developed plan by which freedom 
is guaranteed should be put into print. Such a plan might 



Recommendations Ji 

do much to allay present discontent among the teachers. 
At any rate, the task rests upon the higher school authori- 
ties to discover the reasons, and the remedy, for the present 
dissatisfaction among the teachers. There is no doubt 
about its existence. 



4. ON DISCIPLINE OF UNRULY CHILDREN 

The question of the discipline of unruly children seems 
to us one of those that most urgently demand attention. 

In consequence of the great size of most of the schools, 
there are sure to be, in almost every one of them, a few 
children who are boldly and persistently disobedient. Some 
of these are more or less rowdyish and insolent, but hardly 
vicious ; others approach the criminal in character — some- 
times attempting to start a panic in fire drill, by shouting 
and running; sometimes using foul language to the teacher 
or throwing a book or a knife at her ; sometimes remaining 
away from home, in bad company, three or four nights at 
a time; sometimes beating their mothers, and frequently 
defying both class-room teacher and principal outright. 

A small percentage of these, the very worst, are now 
provided for in the school for truants in Manhattan, the 
disciplinary school in Brooklyn, and the parental school in 
Queens. In order to have them transferred to one of these 
schools they must have a hearing before the district super- 
intendent, and the sentence to commitment must be ap- 
proved by the parents and also by the city superintendent 
of schools. Or the unruly child may be sent to the chil- 
dren's court for trial and sentence. 

But under present conditions not many of these children 
are likely to be disposed of in this way, for several reasons : 

a. These schools can accommodate only a small number 
at best ; and it does no good for the district super- 
intendent to recommend the commitment of a child 
to such a place, if there is no room for him there. 



J2 Standards for Instruction 

b. There is no certainty of promptness in the settlement 

of such cases — for various reasons ; nor is there 
certainty of a final sentence. For example, no 
pupil may be committed who is suffering from 
defective nasal breathing and the like until he has 
been subjected to operative treatment, and time has 
elapsed to allow for a possible cure. Also, there 
seems to be an unwritten tradition that a pupil 
shall be tried in three different schools before being 
sentenced to one of those above named. The de- 
lays and the uncertainty of the outcome, we are 
assured, are about the same in these cases as in 
our criminal courts. 

c. The principal has a special reason for bringing very 

few such children to trial. For, if he does bring 
one, he must spend much time in preparing and 
presenting the case; he and his teachers must be 
placed on the same plane as the pupil in offering 
evidence, so that not seldom they themselves, rather 
than the pupil, seem to be on trial ; he cannot but 
fear that his district superintendent, whose rating 
influences promotion and rank, will consider him 
incompetent in management ; and he is very likely, 
finally, to be instructed to take the child back and 
" give him one more trial," or to transfer him to 
another school. 

Thus, in spite of much trouble and humiliation 
on the part of the principal and teachers, the pupil 
may seem to be sustained and the influence of the 
principal himself throughout his school undermined 
as the result of such a hearing. 

d. Finally, it is very plain to teachers and principals that 

the transfer to one of these schools is not at all 
what many of these children most need. A large 
portion of them are only semi-incorrigibles, capable 
of being saved from commitment if effective pun- 
ishment were allowed on the spot. 



Recommendations 73 

Considering the city as a whole, therefore, there is a 
large number of children — a few in this school and a few 
in that — who are extremely disobedient and disorderly, 
often defiant, who must be kept within the school; there 
is, practically, no other provision for them. They have 
little respect for authority, little regard for the rights of 
others, and little fear beyond that of bodily hurt. What 
can and does the principal now do to control these? 

First of all, neither he nor the class-room teacher may 
touch them in the way of administering punishment. A by- 
law of the Board of Education forbids that. And these 
children are as well acquainted with that by-law as are the 
teachers themselves. In fact, they have not infrequently 
dared a teacher or principal to lay hands on them, threaten- 
ing in that case to report the action to the Board of Edu- 
cation, to have them fined, etc. 

The principal can try moral suasion, can appeal to the 
parent, and can use many other ordinary means for secur- 
ing control, which will sometimes prove successful in spite 
of the hardened condition of the pupils. 

Or he can make threats of things to come — awful but 
vague — and untrue — and sometimes succeed in that way. 

Or he can do any one of four other things : 

a. He can make use of ridicule or sarcasm ; or can tor- 

ture children by placing them in unnatural positions, 
standing or sitting, until they approach exhaustion. 

b. Or, in righteous indignation over a pupil's intolerable 

conduct, and in defense of his own self-respect or 
that of a teacher, he may chastise a pupil vigor- 
ously, running the risk of later punishment himself. 

c. Or, taking a child off by himself, away from all pos- 

sible witnesses, he may mete out to him all the pun- 
ishment that he thinks is deserved. Without wit- 
nesses the pupil can never prove anything against 
him. 

d. Or, finally, he may " smooth over the case," or ignore 



74 Standards for Instruction 

it outright, leaving the responsibility upon the 
class-room teacher of getting on with each pupil 
as best she can. 

As a result of numerous conversations with teachers and 
principals, and of correspondence also, we are convinced 
that all four of these methods are rather common, while 
the last is most common. 

The results are of the gravest character: 

Saying nothing of the fact that to many pupils punish- 
ments more cruel than corporal punishment are applied, 
and that the by-law forbidding corporal punishment is often 
ignored, the great fact is that many class-room teachers 
are at their wits' end every day to discover how to give 
instruction while certain pupils constantly cause disorder. 
A large portion of their time and energy is expended 
merely in trying to get on with such pupils, until ill-health 
results from worry and exhaustion. 

Although any educational system that enforces compul- 
sory attendance is under obligations to protect each pupil, 
not only from physical but also from moral contagion, yet 
it is a fact that the great majority are influenced harmfully, 
through no fault of their own, by observing examples of 
disobedience. 

Finally, the troublesome pupils themselves, conscious of 
the powerlessness of their teachers, become confirmed in 
lawless habits in the very place that is intended to teach 
them to observe the rights of others; and these lawless 
habits, carried into after-life, lead directly to the lawless 
gangs and rowdyism so common today. 

Convinced of the seriousness of these facts, we make the 
following recommendations : 

a. That the by-law of the Board of Education expressly 

forbidding corporal punishment be rescinded. The 
state law touching assault and battery sufficiently 
covers cases of unwarranted severity toward pupils. 

b. That the number of parental schools for the most 



Recommendations 75 

depraved children be increased, in which the in- 
mates shall be under constant confinement; also 
that the number of disciplinary schools in which 
the inmates shall be confined throughout the day- 
be increased. That the mode of commitment to 
these schools be greatly simplified; that a special 
curriculum be allowed in each of these schools, 
peculiarly fitted to the needs of the pupils ; and that 
corporal punishment be allowed in them. 

c. That in other schools (a) the principal and the few 

persons to whom he may delegate the right shall 
have authority to use physical force with pupils; 
or, when it is deemed advisable by the principal, 
one or more classes composed of troublesome chil- 
dren shall be formed, after the type of the present 
ungraded classes; and that in these special classes 
the principal and the teachers of such classes to 
whom he delegates the right, shall have authority 
to administer corporal punishment. 

d. That corporal punishment be inflicted only under the 

following restrictions : 

(a) That each child first receive a medical ex- 

amination ; 

(b) That, if possible, the written consent of the father 

or guardian be secured ; 

(c) That such punishment be applied only in the pres- 

ence of some adult witness; 

(d) That accurate records be kept of all cases of such 

punishment, together with the conditions that 
led to them and the mode of its administration. 

We are convinced, from the data we have been able to 
gather, that these recommendations possess the following 
advantages : 

a. That the number of attempted commitments to insti- 
tutions would be greatly diminished, thereby avoid- 



y6 Standards for Instruction 

ing a great waste of time and energy on the part 
of district superintendents, principals, and teachers. 

b. That the mere knowledge on the part of the unruly 

pupils that they may be subject to corporal punish- 
ment for their wrongdoing will of itself make 
actual punishment unnecessary in a great majority 
of cases. 

c. That the number of cases of corporal punishment in 

the city will be reduced below the actual number 
at the present time. 



5. ON THE AIMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

The foregoing conclusions declare that in general the 
instruction in the elementary school is poor. It would 
hardly be so unsatisfactory as it is if the working aims 
themselves of the school were not so low. The most de- 
pressing fact about this part of the investigation has been 
our inability to discover either any general striving toward 
the higher aims of instruction or even signs of such gen- 
eral striving. Such signs, at least, would be in evidence 
if broad purposes controlled the field. This fact emphasizes 
the importance of a formulation by the school authorities of 
the main objects which elementary instruction should seek 
to accomplish, in terms that are significant to teachers and 
laymen alike and that breathe a broad spirit. 



Courses of Study 



CHAPTER VIII 
STANDARDS FOR JUDGING VALUE OF STUDY 1 

THE CURRICULUM AS DETERMINING QUALITY OF INSTRUC- 
TION 

THIRTY years ago the belief was often expressed that 
it made little difference what one studied, but all the 
difference in the world with whom one studied. That belief 
made almost any curriculum acceptable, and directed atten- 
tion to the personality of the teacher and to method as the 
principal factors determining the effectiveness of instruction. 
That belief, however, has been greatly modified. While 
no one will deny the importance of the teacher's person- 
ality, most persons will admit that the proper expression of 
personality and skill in method are both greatly dependent 
upon the subject-matter of the curriculum. Carefully se- 
lected subject-matter is prerequisite to skill in method of 
presentation. Without a good curriculum there is bound 
to be great waste. 

JUDGING CURRICULUM AND SYLLABI 

I. Bases for Relation of Subject-matter to Children's 
Interests 

In harmony with the previous discussion of standards for 
judging the quality of instruction as a whole, the quality of 
the curriculum in particular is to be determined partly by 

1 While it was intended to include all the subjects of instruction in this 
study, lack of time compelled the omission of history and civics, penmanship, 
and foreign language. 

79 



80 Standards for Instruction 

its tendency to influence the tastes, purposes, and hopes of 
children. Any curriculum for the elementary school should 
have its content selected from among those experiences of 
mankind that have seemed most valuable. That is to be 
presupposed. But this selection can be indifferent to the 
tendencies, interests, and capacities of children in general, 
and of certain ages in particular, and aim only at present 
storage of facts and ideas that may count in a dim future, 
i. e., in adult life. Or it may be made with constant refer- 
ence to the abilities, tastes, and needs of children at the 
present time. In the former case, motive on the part of 
children is overlooked; in the latter case, the extent of 
provision for it is accepted as one of the standards by 
which the curriculum is to be judged. We hold the latter 
view. 

2. Initiative Evoked in Teachers and Children 

A further basis for estimating the merits of the curricu- 
lum and syllabi is found in their attitude toward the exer- 
cise of initiative on the part of teachers and pupils. The 
syllabi in particular — being an interpretation of the cur- 
riculum and in addition containing suggestions on method 
— may show the subjects to be so attractive as directly to 
invite attack by children. They may suggest also so many 
different sequences of topics, and other procedures requir- 
ing choice, that they surround both teacher and pupil with 
an atmosphere of freedom and thus directly favor the exer- 
cise of initiative on the part of both. Or they can offer 
a skeleton so bare that it repels all who behold it ; and they 
can, by offering no options and by repetition, so insist on 
certain suggestions of sequence and other procedures as 
to surround the teacher and finally, through her, the pupil 
with an atmosphere of restraint that tends to suppress all 
originality. 



Judging Value of Curriculum 81 

3. Organization of Subject-matter 

The first great condition of the proper organization of 
ideas in the pupil's mind is that they be well organized in 
the curriculum itself. If they be scattered there, it is too 
great a task to expect the class-room teacher to establish 
order among them before putting them before children. 
One of the first characteristics of a good curriculum, there- 
fore, is avoidance of isolated facts. In general, whatever 
items of a study cannot form a necessary part of some 
valuable whole must be omitted; and those that are ac- 
cepted should have a recognizable place in a series of ideas, 
with cross relations or correlation with other studies. 

4. Attention to Relative Values 

Finally, the value of both curriculum and syllabi is to be 
judged by the emphasis they succeed in placing upon the 
more vital and real parts of each branch of knowledge in 
comparison with that placed upon the less important and 
more formal portions. Every study contains a multitude of 
minor facts that any one is expected to know, such, for in- 
stance, as dates in history, situation of places in geography, 
and pronunciation and meaning of individual words in liter- 
ature. These can stand out so prominently as to seem to 
constitute the body of the study; or they can be so sub- 
ordinated to what is fundamental that the latter is made 
to carry the former and constitute the bulk of the subject. 
To the extent that this latter object is effected the curricu- 
lum and syllabi satisfy one important test of excellence. 

CURRICULUM AND SYLLABI ON TWO DIFFERENT PLANES 

In discussing standards for judging the value of class- 
room instruction (page 19), it was shown that, according 
as instruction met the tests proposed, it belonged to one of 
two planes. The same holds true with reference to the 



82 Standards for Instruction 

curriculum and syllabi. Probably no curriculum in ex- 
istence ideally meets any one of the four tests we have 
employed. Yet some of them, in some of their parts, attain 
one or more of these standards to a remarkable degree and 
in many of their parts show partial success in the same 
direction. Others scarcely show signs of any striving 
toward these standards. It is, therefore, their partial suc- 
cesses, and the endeavor they show to achieve such suc- 
cesses, that make the distinction between acceptable cur- 
ricula and syllabi and those that should be condemned. 
Those are considered good that show excellence at many 
points and promises of improvement; and those are con- 
sidered poor that ignore these standards. 



CHAPTER IX 
APPLICATION OF THESE STANDARDS 

I. THE KINDERGARTEN 

THERE is at present no definite and uniform curriculum 
or program for the kindergarten. The only way, 
then, to judge of the character of the program most com- 
monly in use is to apply standards of worth to what one 
sees in the various kindergartens. Certain features are 
prominent in all, such as songs, stories, bodily activity, in- 
cluding rhythmical movements, and games, and much use 
of materials in arranging, designing, and constructing. Just 
what ideas are to be conveyed by, or developed through, 
these activities; just what experiences are to be given or 
deepened by them; just what habits are to be established, 
seem to rest largely with the individual teacher. 

Provision for Motive 

In most of the kindergartens visited, the body of thought 
which gave direction to the activities was close to the chil- 
dren, and of such nature that purposes would naturally arise 
and be carried over into home life and outside play life. 
Prominent topics were the child's relation to family and 
friends, to animals, to industrial workers and tradespeople, 
and to public servants. Attention was frequently directed 
to small services the children might render, and ambition 
was aroused to acquire skill or power in order to win cer- 
tain positions of trust and responsibility within the group. 
The things made by the children also frequently gave a 
considerable degree of continuity and fixity to their 
purposes. 

83 



84 Standards for Instruction 

Provision for Organising Subject-matter 

The kindergarten program always shows attention to or- 
ganization. Some teachers provide for a distinct correlation 
running through song, story, nature work, rhythm, games, 
gift work, and occupations. Others correlate part of the 
activities, and depend on the sequence of materials to afford 
the ordered presentation of other activities. 

Consideration of Relative Values 

The children are more frequently called upon to judge 
of the desirability of certain acts or modes of doing than 
of the worth of facts or ideas. The values which are kept 
prominent, therefore, are of a dynamic kind, and to a large 
extent the children's incipient powers of judgment and dis- 
crimination are called out in connection with matters on 
their own plane. 

The teacher's own sense of values is, of course, very in- 
fluential. If she seems to attach more importance to such 
matters as technique, precision, and exact imitation than to 
initiative, originality, suggestive variation, and ability to 
work out problems, the former types of excellence are those 
which the children will also soon place uppermost. There 
is evidence that in some quarters these more formal values 
are being overemphasized. 

Provision for Individuality 

That the curriculum does not limit the teacher's freedom 
is evident from numerous facts. Pride in the appearance 
of the room, arrangements for comfort, conveniences, and 
esthetic effect, the presence of objects calculated to arouse 
interest and stimulate thought, variety in the subject-matter 
— all show initiative and zeal on the part of kindergarten 
teachers. Unusual interest is displayed also in the indi- 
vidual child, and it has been found that the kindergartner 



Application of Standards 85 

almost always knows the personal history of any child 
singled out. 

Since self-activity is one of the cardinal principles of the 
kindergarten philosophy, we should expect to find no lack 
of opportunity for the exercise of initiative on the part of 
the children. That such opportunity is provided, so far as 
the curriculum is concerned, is plainly shown in the fact 
that the work undertaken is, with the exception of stilted 
gift work here and there, selected with much reference to 
children's tendencies. Such subject-matter abundantly 
favors the exercise of initiative and the expression of indi- 
viduality in other ways. 

In brief, the kindergarten curriculum, as a rule, is so 
plainly determined by reference to the chief aims of the 
school, as expressed in the four standards proposed, that it 
greatly aids the kind of class-room instruction that can 
meet those standards. 

2. THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

Reading and Literature 

It is safe to assume that the general object of this por- 
tion of the course in English is to introduce the pupil to 
the main lines of reading that one who goes no farther 
than the elementary school may be expected to pursue, and 
to do this in such a way that the reading may be intelligent, 
appreciative, and habitual. 

The range, therefore, should include both classic litera- 
ture and, to some extent, current publications, such as news- 
papers and magazines. The main problems are to make 
such selections from this field as will appeal strongly to 
the individual pupil, and then to present them in a way 
that will subordinate the symbols to the thought. 

Provision for Motive 

The quality of the subjects listed in the curriculum is 
excellent; there are only two objections that need be con- 



86 Standards for Instruction 

sidered here. One is the narrowness of the offering. A 
stranger looking through the list is likely to be impressed 
with the neglect of current literature. If one important 
object of the English course should be to introduce the 
pupil to such literature, i. e., to appeal to his interest in the 
newspaper, magazine, etc., and develop that interest further, 
so that his tastes there will be good and his method of read- 
ing intelligent, then these kinds of reading should be more 
prominent than they are. 

The other objection is the utter impossibility of securing 
the fullest adaptation of literature to individuals when the 
650,000 pupils of Greater New York, living in radically 
different local environments and homes, are expected to 
cover substantially the same reading at substantially the 
same rate. The whole trend of modern education, in its 
emphasis on individuality, is opposed to that plan. In litera- 
ture, in particular, where the development of taste is so 
important, differences in individuals should receive special 
attention. Boys often need selections different from those 
for girls ; some children need to devote twice as much time 
to stories as others ; a few eighth-grade pupils may be able 
to read Shakespeare and the Webster and Hayne debate 
with profit, but many cannot. Any teacher has her prefer- 
ences, and can teach some selections with far greater effect 
than others. Why should all such facts as these be in the 
main ignored, when the very definition of good teaching 
signifies adjustment to individual conditions? 

In provision for the subordination of form to thought, 
in beginning reading, the syllabus shows breadth. Ideas 
vary a good deal throughout the country in regard to this 
problem, and teachers, while practically being urged to let 
the thought lead, are left free to follow their own will in 
method. One striking exception is in the syllabus for 
Grade iA, where it is directed that ". . . Daily lessons 
should be given on the sounds of single letters and combi- 
nations of letters." Many an excellent teacher would feel 
this requirement to be a direct barrier to her success in 



Application of Standards 87 

awakening interest. No doubt it is greatly needed in some 
classes, but that is not a good reason for requiring it in all. 

The statement in Grade 4A that " Pupils should be 
trained to depend largely on the context for the meanings 
of words " contributes greatly to motivation of the pupil, 
being based on a sound principle. But its spirit is almost 
directly opposed in 2B, where the request is made that 
" exercises that will insure the prompt recognition of the 
form and an understanding of the meaning of new words " 
should precede the reading. That signifies formal work. 

The frequent suggestions favoring the teachers' reading 
aloud to their pupils are excellent, since good oral reading 
by the teacher is recognized as one of the most effective 
means* for inculcating a love of literature. 

Yet, taking the syllabus as a whole, there is a striking 
overemphasis of the minor parts of good reading, i. e., of 
form in distinction from thought. For example, the num- 
ber of new words to be acquired in a half year is so fre- 
quently mentioned, and phonic drills and distinct enunci- 
ation are made so urgent, that one rather easily gets the 
impression that these things, taken together, mean good 
reading. This conception, no doubt, to a considerable ex- 
tent accounts for such recitations in reading as that in the 
fifth grade elsewhere described, where each child was al- 
lowed to read only a single sentence and his general ability 
to read was judged by the accuracy with which each word 
was enunciated and pronounced. That plan directly checks 
motive on the part of pupils. 

Attention to Relative Values 

This last point brings up the question of relative values 
in general. What is the relative importance of silent read- 
ing, for example, in comparison with oral reading? Most 
of the suggestions on method in the syllabus concern the 
latter. Yet, judged by the prominence of silent reading 
outside of school, and after school life is over, a large part 



88 Standards for Instruction 

of the reading in school might well be silent reading. The 
task then would be to show wherein good silent reading 
consists. The syllabus shows some comprehension of the 
importance of this matter, since silent reading, without 
reference to oral reading, is recommended in Grade 2B and 
referred to several times later. But the test suggested for 
silent reading, i. e., ability to express the substance of the 
thought, is very inadequate. Any one must admit that 
reading merely to know what an author says is passive, 
and scarcely admissible in real study outside of educational 
institutions. Therefore, one of the important questions is, 
How is the school to prepare for the more aggressive kind 
of silent reading? It is to be regretted that the syllabus 
does not place greater emphasis on silent reading, and show 
its desirable characteristics far more fully. 

The syllabus makes admirable suggestions about reading 
for " essential meanings " in Grade 6B, and directly recom- 
mends the neglect of minor matters in Grades 7 and 8 
for the appreciation of the larger features. But why not 
similar suggestions for earlier grades? In second reader 
selections, for example, some portions of a story are usually 
more important or finer than other portions. Should not 
children be taught to distinguish these greater values almost 
from the beginning of school life, and thus establish the 
habit of being selective? And should not such judgment 
about values be expected also as an essential part of silent 
reading? More than that, should not judging of the rela- 
tive worth of such books, stories, magazines, and news- 
paper articles as boys and girls read be made a regular 
part of school work in English from about the fifth grade 
on? The temptation among children to read trashy litera- 
ture and to listen to degrading stories is common. It is, 
therefore, important to cultivate the power to distinguish 
between what is coarse and what is fine and between good 
and bad. 



Application of Standards 89 

Attention to Organisation, and Exercise of Initiative 

The plan for the work in English is to be commended 
for not attempting to group the selections read according 
to some central idea, for the way is not yet clear to do that 
with much effect. The organization of the particular selec- 
tion is, therefore, the only kind of organization to be con- 
sidered here; and since that is already provided for by the 
author, those who plan the course need not concern them- 
selves further about it. 

As to provision for the exercise of individual initiative 
by teacher and pupil, the situation is by no means so simple 
or so satisfactory. 

By the time the seventh year of school is reached, the 
pupil himself should be able to determine, to a large extent, 
what should be done by him with at least a good portion 
of the selections assigned to him for study. How, other- 
wise, is he learning to read independently and intelligently 
outside of school? 

But if this object is to be accomplished, the beginnings 
of the exercise of such independence must have been made 
very early in the grades. That is, the children must early 
have learned to put some of the necessary questions, as well 
as to answer them; they must have learned to select the 
more valuable parts and make fitting remarks about them. 
That means that the teacher, from the first year of school, 
must have labored to cultivate the pupils' initiative, keeping 
herself in the background. The silence of the syllabus in 
regard to this whole matter — consideration of which might 
well constitute a full half of all thought on method — 
leaves one in doubt whether the growth of the pupil toward 
self-reliance is the aim here so much as mere knowledge. 
Such a doubt no syllabus should allow. 

There is some reference in the syllabus to " informal 
talks on books read at home " (in 6A) ; but the extent to 
which pupils should follow their individual preferences in 
their reading, ,and use the recitation period for reporting 



90 Standards for Instruction 

upon it to the class, is a matter of far more importance 
than is indicated by the syllabus. 

In the higher grades there are definite suggestions as to 
how many times we need read a masterpiece for apprecia- 
tion, — apparently two times in Grade 6B and three times 
in Grades 7 and 8. The danger of thus giving specific 
directions without reference to the principles involved and 
to the kind of selection is well illustrated in this case, for 
such directions, presented so arbitrarily, are bound to pro- 
duce a mechanical effect. Many good selections are not 
the kind that one needs to read three times, as for example 
Longfellow's " Hiawatha." Or, if one reads them three 
times, it would not be in the ways described. A hasty, 
more or less careless, first reading of a long selection is 
often one of the worst introductions to a classic; yet the 
instructions in the syllabus have caused that practise to 
be quite common in New York City. The difficulty with 
the syllabus at this point is that it suggests uniformity in 
detailed practise, while the only uniformity admissible is 
that in aims and principles. If the syllabus had stated the 
few leading aims and principles involved in the teaching 
of literature, and then had shown, by a few illustrations, 
how they variously affect practise, according to conditions, 
it would have given most valuable help. As it is, it tends 
rather to limit the freedom of teachers in studying indi- 
vidual conditions and in selecting both the reading matter 
and the method appropriate to them. 

Conclusion 

In general it may be said that the selection of subject- 
matter for reading and literature is good so far as it goes; 
and many of the suggestions on method are valuable. The 
main defect is that the point of view in making selections 
is narrow, omitting much that should have been included; 
and in offering suggestions on method the syllabus is 
arbitrary. 



Application of Standards 91 



COMPOSITION AND GRAMMAR 

Provision for Motive 

The first condition of success in composition is the real 
desire to say something. A certain private school, desir- 
ing the anniversary of Lincoln's birthday, as well as Wash- 
ington's, for a holiday, determined to send in a petition 
to that effect to the principal. This need furnished the 
stimulus for competitive letters written by all the pupils 
of several rooms, and the best of the letters were forwarded 
to the principal. 

One of the public school principals in this city has a 
collection of compositions, recently received from boys, tell- 
ing of their experience in collecting stamps. There was 
a real purpose in writing in both these cases, so that the 
prime condition of good composition was met. 

Some teachers regard that condition as normal. They 
conceive children to be as well supplied with purposes 
that require oral and written speech for their accomplish- 
ment as with facts; and they regard the work of making 
children conscious of such purposes, and of formulating 
these as subjects for compositions, as one of the leading 
elements of all good composition teaching. 

Little sympathy with this conception is shown in the 
curriculum and syllabus for composition in the New York 
City elementary schools. The nearest approach to it is 
found in the early grades, where the desire is expressed 
that " the subjects of the language lessons be interesting 
and instructive." But beyond the improvement he will get 
in language there is no reference either then or later to the 
need of a real purpose, on the part of the pupil, in the 
proposed conversations, story-telling, and writing expected 
from him. Even classic literature, of which much use is 
to be made, is considered valuable not mainly as a source 
of live topics that need discussion but rather as a source 
of models of style, for imitation. Composition, in the 



92 Standards for Instruction 

minds of the authors of the syllabus, aims at correctness 
of form, at clearness, accuracy, and sequence, in the presen- 
tation of thought. Classic models supply the best examples 
of these, and imitation secures practise; therefore, they 
must be the chief means of developing power in these re- 
spects. The need of motive for the expression of thought, 
in composition, is ignored. 

This attitude helps to explain the course and syllabus in 
grammar. That subject really begins in the fourth grade, 
under the heading of composition, with a classification of 
four types of declarative sentences ; in the beginning of the 
sixth grade it takes an independent place in the program, 
which it holds throughout the sixth, seventh, and eighth 
years. The absence of motive and the degree of its isola- 
tion from other subjects are indicated by two facts : First, 
in the prominence given to mere classifications, in the sixth 
year. For example, the following is a full statement of the 
work for Grade 6B: 

" Grammar. The instruction should be limited to the 
subdivision, inflection, and syntax of nouns, pronouns, ad- 
jectives, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. Only the 
most important subdivisions should be studied: of nouns, 
two classes, common and proper ; of pronouns, four classes, 
personal, interrogative, relative, and adjective; of adjec- 
tives, two classes, descriptive and demonstrative; of ad- 
verbs, those expressing time, place, degree, and manner, and 
interrogative adverbs; and of conjunctions, coordinating 
and subordinating, copulative, and disjunctive. Rules of 
syntax should be studied in connection with words occur- 
ring in sentences. 

" Phrases should be classified according to function, as 
noun, adjective, and adverbial — not according to form. 

" Analysis and synthesis should be limited to simple 
sentences." 

The other fact showing how isolated most of this work 
is expected to be is the statement in Grade 8A that " In 
this grade emphasis should be placed upon the connection 



Application of Standards 93 

between composition and grammar." The idea seems to 
be that, after having classified the facts of our language in 
the preceding years, the pupils of the eighth year shall dis- 
cover the motive for such dull work, i. e., they shall see 
how these classifications are related to composition. 

The value of this course in grammar must be seriously 
questioned for three reasons: 

a. It is no source of mental life to the average pupil; 

and, being made prominent in the crucial sixth year 
of school, tends to drive children out of school. 

b. Experience within the elementary schools has shown 

that the rules of grammar, learned apart from com- 
position, literature, and conversation, have very 
little or no effect on the correct use of English. 

c. The time required for this kind of instruction must 

be mainly taken from composition and literature, 
and thus seriously weakens the appeal they make 
to children. 

According to the time allotment of studies there are 375 
minutes per week that can be given to English in the sixth 
year of school, aside from seventy-five minutes for pen- 
manship. Out of this time the claim of spelling for ap- 
proximately fifteen minutes per day, or seventy-five min- 
utes per week, cannot be denied. Grammar as a separate 
subject cannot possibly get on with less than three periods 
per week of thirty minutes each, which makes ninety min- 
utes. That leaves 210 minutes per week for literature and 
composition. If we assume that literature should receive 
at least thirty minutes per day, or 150 per week, that leaves 
sixty minutes, or two thirty-minute periods, per week, for 
composition. There are 205 minutes per week set aside for 
study and unassigned time. Out of this amount at least 
thirty minutes per day, or 150 minutes per week, are ex- 
pected to be devoted to study, not recitation, leaving eleven 
minutes per day that can be used where most needed. Sev- 
eral other subjects as well as English are, of course, clamor- 



94 Standards for Instruction 

ing for more time ; hence it cannot be expected that all, or 
even most, of this will go to English, as a rule. We see, 
therefore, that this grammar, while tending to discourage 
pupils and while affecting their English only slightly at 
best, is also crowding out other work that is absolutely 
necessary. 

Attention to Relative Values 

The emphasis, after the third grade, on model letters and 
model specimens of narration, description, and exposition 
helps to explain two striking omissions in the syllabus. The 
qualities frequently named, and set up as aims, are clear- 
ness, accuracy, and sequence. These certainly are desirable. 
But suppose that Lowell writes a model letter to Emerson 
thanking him for a book; and children, in imitation of this 
model, write to some friend likewise expressing thanks for 
such a present. The model letter cannot be fully followed. 
It must be modified, according to the persons concerned and 
the conditions. In other words, the fitness of one's re- 
marks, as well as their clearness, accuracy, and sequence, is 
a great factor in composition. 

Again, if a pupil applies for a position, the success of 
his letter is likely to depend very much upon the reasons 
he can give for thinking that he is the most desirable can- 
didate. One of the main tests of almost any kind of com- 
position is found in the extent to which the data offered 
produce a vivid picture, a proof, a conviction. In other 
words, the force with which one presents ideas is another 
vital factor in composition. Clearness, accuracy, and se- 
quence do not include these two; nor are they superior to 
them in importance. Why, then, is there no reference to 
either of them in the syllabus? The reason seems to be 
that want of appreciation of the need of any specific pur- 
pose in composition has caused these elements to be en- 
tirely overlooked. In addition, the absence of any particu- 
lar aim in writing would deprive a writer of all means for 
judging the fitness and force of his statements anyway. 



Application of Standards 95 

Consequently, unless the authors of the syllabus had urged 
the importance of having a particular object in writing, any 
discussion of fitness and force as factors in success would 
have been useless. 

The criticism here pertains, not to what the syllabus in- 
cludes, but to what it omits. 

Aside from this omission it is plain that much attention 
has been directed to the relative importance of various 
parts of composition work. In particular, the emphasis 
on much oral composition for its own sake and as prepara- 
tion for written work is worthy of commendation. 

Reference to relative values in the case of grammar is 
in place only when it is approached and treated as an art. 
For values are present only to the extent that relations to 
our interests are established. But grammar is not expected 
to be approached and treated here as an art. For example, 
as above quoted, the connection between composition and 
grammar is to receive emphasis in the eighth grade only. 
Grammar, then, is here presented as a science or, the out- 
line being very brief, as a mere skeleton of a science. Who, 
in that case, can point out the most important part of a 
page or a chapter? Appreciation of values is to come later. 
Thus, as presented, this subject deliberately trains children 
to omit consideration of varying values at a time when the 
habit of weighing value is one of the most important habits 
for them to form. 

Attention to Organisation 

In its frequent reference to paragraphing and outlining, 
the syllabus gives desirable prominence to organization of 
ideas; but examination of the larger features of the plan 
reveals a peculiar defect in this respect. 

One might suppose that classical selections treated in the 
periods set aside for literature would be mainly drawn upon, 
both for model examples for imitation and for subjects of 
discussion in composition. Proper correlation between com- 
position and literature presupposes that. But it is not so, 



96 Standards for Instruction 

in the main. While a general plan is proposed, as previ- 
ously explained, for the appreciative reading of a master- 
piece of literature as a part of literature, in composition 
another general plan is also proposed, even in the same 
year (the seventh) for a study of specimens of narration, 
description, exposition, and familiar letters selected from 
literature with the object of imitating them. There are 
supposed to be three readings in each case; and, while 
there is perhaps more attention to the author's plan and 
style in the latter case than in the former, one wonders 
why there should be so much duplication. This nearly 
complete duplication of work indicates that the authors of 
the syllabus intentionally avoid correlation among studies; 
and there are many other facts that suggest the same 
intention. 

Provision for Exercise of Initiative of Teachers and Pupils 

In the field of composition the exercise of initiative in- 
volves expressing in one's own way what one thinks and 
feels. Many believe that one great object of composition is 
to help a person find out what he really thinks and feels, and 
to help him to express it in the way peculiar to him. With 
this object in mind, literary models should come late in 
the unfolding of thought on a particular topic; otherwise 
they are in danger of supplanting the pupil's own thoughts 
and style and thus submerging him. The function of 
models is not to supplant the self, but to offer aid after the 
self has found something of its own to stand upon. They 
are, then, a very valuable source of suggestion, revealing 
desirable changes here and there in what is, at bottom, 
one's own. The conviction that good thought and good 
style are mainly to be attained by imitating another is one 
of the worst calamities in a student's intellectual develop- 
ment. Imitation is a very valuable aid in securing good 
expression of thought, but it is a subordinate, not the chief, 
means; it is subordinate to self-expression. 

In the curriculum and syllabus of New York City, how- 



Application of Standards 97 

ever, imitation is the watchword ; correct expression, rather 
than self-expression, is the aim; and positive suggestions 
for the preservation and development of originality are 
wanting. 

With this conception of the worth of the pupil's individ- 
uality, it is not at all strange that the teacher's individuality 
seems to have been overlooked in important respects. For 
example, in Grade 5A the direction is given that " Only 
one kind of error should be corrected at each reading of 
a composition." This is nothing else than wooden. In 
Grade 7 A the model specimens are to be studied in a certain 
way, as above referred to. Of course, these directions may 
be taken only as suggestions, although great numbers of 
teachers deny that they are commonly so interpreted by 
the principals and superintendents. But why should even 
suggestions be made whose influence is bound to be in the 
direction of iron-bound uniformity, when adaptation to 
particular conditions, which means diversity, is the standard 
of excellence? Should not many a classic model be read 
primarily to observe how vivid are the pictures the author 
produces? Should not many another be read mainly to 
study the peculiar force of particular words or phrases? 
There is no fixed way of treating these subjects; and to 
assume that there is, not only misleads immature teachers, 
but tends to tie the hands or check the initiative of those 
who are mature. 

Further, the insistence on substantially the same curricu- 
lum in composition for all schools means infringement on 
the exercise of individuality by teachers and principals to a 
marked degree. For example, the list of prevailing errors 
in English restricts the activity of the teachers to those 
errors, whereas the actual errors vary to a limitless extent 
in schools representing differences in nationalities as well 
as in home advantages. The amount of time to be devoted 
to oral and written expression of thought should also vary 
extensively. The teachers and principal of a given school 
are the only persons who possess the knowledge necessary 



98 Standards for Instruction 

to decide these matters, and their positive proposals are 
invaluable {required) if the curriculum is to make its fair 
contribution toward efficiency in instruction. But the man- 
ner of presenting the present curriculum and syllabus at 
best only allows freedom in these matters; it does not put 
a premium upon freedom. 

These, then, are prominent facts touching the curriculum 
and syllabus for composition and grammar. 

They ignore the need of any particular purpose to be 
accomplished when one writes; and, in advocating gram- 
mar as a regular study, they emphasize their disregard for 
motive on the part of children. 

Motive being thus disregarded, the basis for considera- 
tion of relative values is omitted completely, and very 
naturally some of the most important elements in compo- 
sition — which are suggested only when motive is kept in 
mind — are ignored. 

The importance of correlation between literature and 
composition is not recognized. Imitation is made so promi- 
nent that the individuality of children is endangered ; while 
the directions given to teachers on method tend seriously 
to limit their freedom, and insistence upon substantially 
one curriculum for all schools prevents the adaptation of 
the instruction to individual conditions. 

SPELLING 

Motivation 

The spelling of from 3,000 to 4,000 words is expected 
to be learned in the course of the eight years, and they are 
each* year " selected from the pupils' vocabulary and from 
the lessons of the grade." This source provides far better 
for motive than do the lists usually found in text-books. 
But even this limitation is too broad when we realize that 
the main need of spelling is found in the written expression 
of thought. This being the case, only those words should 
be studied that belong to one's " active vocabulary," and 



Application of Standards 99 

that are also likely to be used in written expression. In 
order to meet this condition, teachers should not only make 
out grade lists, drawn from the sources mentioned, but also 
class lists as well; and teachers and pupils together should 
arrange for " personal lists," including words new or par- 
ticularly difficult for particular pupils. 

The recommended order of procedure for the mastery 
of words is: (1) Meaning through context; (2) observa- 
tion of written form with naming of letters in order; (3) 
copying; (4) writing from dictation, perhaps preceded by 
oral spelling; (5) oral spelling. The insistence upon the 
meaning of each word at the start tends greatly to make 
the study concrete. The word study, too, extending through 
much of the course, helps to give the subject a real content 
of interest. 

Organization 

The importance of association is not overlooked, as is 
shown above, in the combined use of the ear, eye, voice, 
and hand in the mastery of word forms. A small number 
of rules is taught; the grouping of letters into syllables, 
the observation of common phonic elements, and the group- 
ing of words according to common stems, prefixes, suffixes, 
and as synonyms — all show attention to organization. But 
the most important grouping of all, i. e., in actual sentences 
full of interest, is partly overlooked. While words are 
approached in their setting, there is little reference to re- 
viewing and testing them in actual sentences. Since spell- 
ing is mainly used in written work, the form of the word 
needs to be associated with the muscular movements of the 
hand, and it should finally be reproduced while the atten- 
tion is largely directed to the content of what is written. 
For these reasons the real test of spelling is found in writ- 
ing interesting sentences from dictation, and in spontane- 
ous written expression. The end in spelling practise, then, 
is not oral spelling, nor written spelling in lists, but written 
sentences, or paragraphs. 



ioo Standards for Instruction 

Relative Values 

The syllabus recommends the teaching of words rather 
than the mere testing of ability to spell them. That is a 
very desirable distinction. It also emphasizes the impor- 
tance of attention to misspelled words. But unfortunately 
its suggestions about how to present new words are alto- 
gether too limited; beyond question they should be pre- 
sented with the same care that topics in history or arith- 
metic might be presented, particularly in order to awaken 
thought and to avoid wrong first impressions. Suggestions 
also about how to correct misspelled words are almost 
wanting, although that should constitute a prominent part 
of the study. 

Initiative 

One important part of any plan for teaching spelling 
consists in provision for self-help on the part of the pupil. 
Word analysis is one part of any such provision, and that 
is made prominent here. The learning of some rules is 
a second means, and that is included. The use of the dic- 
tionary is a third means. But it is surprising that the use 
of the dictionary is first mentioned in Grade 6A, while 
very many schools elsewhere take up that task in Grade 4A. 
Why should it come so late in New York City? Also, the 
value of the proper enunciation of words as an aid to their 
spelling seems slighted throughout the course. 

On the whole, the curriculum in spelling is reasonable 
in amount, and both its content and the suggestions in the 
syllabus about method free it from excessive formality — 
which is a decided merit. 

MUSIC 

Provision for Motive 

The course of study in music in the elementary schools 
calls for rote singing from Grade 1 through Grade 4A. 



Application of Standards 101 

This plan gives an opportunity to supply the children with 
musical experiences that they would be unable to have if 
they were dependent on what they could read. 

But no guidance is given by example, or by titles, of the 
kinds of songs or of the particular songs to be used. Con- 
sidering the fact that music, like language, is a product 
of our social life, and that the child's early musical expe- 
rience establishes his comprehension of and taste for music 
in the same way as his early study of literature establishes 
a comprehension of and taste for literature, it would seem 
to be of the highest importance that the musical selections 
which the child learns by rote should be not only of a 
character to please him at the time, but also of classic qual- 
ity. In fact, it is the proper awakening of the pupil's feel- 
ing for good music in these early grades that constitutes 
the most fundamental part of his musical education. Music, 
like language, interprets the social and physical world about 
us. In the choice of songs in relation to seasons, festivals, 
social events, and occupations, there is supplied a strong 
motive for the use of the songs. But so long as no sug- 
gestive lists of songs are made, and principles of selection 
are wanting, there is serious lack of guidance. 

This is all the more evident when one reflects that the 
difference in the ages of the pupils, even between the first 
and fourth grades, requires much variety in the choice of 
materials; and while no list should be any more univer- 
sally accepted than is a list suggesting what would be read 
for literary purposes in the readers that are used, yet as 
one of the main functions of those who plan language 
courses and readers is the selection of the materials, so 
should the course in music offer guidance in the selections 
by which the pupils are to be trained to love good music. 

It might be said that this task is accomplished in the music 
readers. But as three or four years of more or less rote 
work in music precede any extensive reading ability in 
that subject, books could be of little use during these early 
years. Music also, even more than language, depends for 



102 Standards for Instruction 

its effectiveness upon its character and the style in which 
it is rendered. Hence the choice of materials should have 
been indicated with even more than the care employed 
in the choice of literary selections. There are classic songs 
for children like some of the Mother Goose melodies, as 
well as those of more rational types like Stevenson's verses 
set to music. Considering the flood of weak music that is 
written for children, as well as the number of bad adapta- 
tions, guidance in the choice of material is imperative. 

Reference to the importance of the style in which the 
rote song work is done brings up a further reason for care 
in selection. Owing to the important fact that the child's 
quality of voice, his inflection and articulation, tend to act 
automatically in response to what he clearly feels, the rote 
song that really expresses his interest becomes one of the 
most important means for developing good tone and ex- 
pressive rendering. To be effective, as in the case of lan- 
guage, the thought expressed must appeal to him. Yet 
neither the course of study nor the syllabus that accom- 
panies it has anything to say on this score more than that 
the tone must be sweet and the songs must be well 
rendered. 

The course of study follows the same plan with refer- 
ence to the reading material for the later years as it does 
with reference to the rote song work, i. e., it makes no 
effort to define or suggest good materials. That the readers 
contain many valuable selections there is no doubt; but 
there is no doubt either that they contain many that are 
poor. Some guidance is necessary here, also. 

In omitting extensive and helpful suggestions, therefore, 
as to desirable materials, the curriculum and syllabus fail, 
most seriously, to provide properly for motive. 

Consideration of Relative Values 

In considering relative values, we are chiefly interested 
here, as in early reading of literature, in the extent to which 



Application of Standards 103 

the formal side of the work is subordinated to the thought 
and feeling. 

Turning to the use of the rote song for purposes of 
teaching the tonal relationships necessary for sight reading, 
we find that, while this idea is suggested in the syllabus, no 
provisions for carrying it out are made; hence this live 
approach to the technical work is lost sight of in the class 
room in a merely formal presentation. In the first grade, 
it is true, the suggestion is made that the scale should be 
learned as a song; but this rote-song basis is practically 
omitted, and the entire attention is devoted to the practise 
of intervals, dictated by number. As such independent in- 
tervals do not form musical movement any more than 
single letters or even words form literary thought, the effect 
of such interval practise resembles more the earlier methods 
utilized in reading when the attention of the pupils was 
directed first to the letters, then to the words, and finally 
to the combination of words in a phrase. It is true that 
the organization of the work in music along the line which 
was followed by teachers of reading years ago, is carried 
out with extreme care and thought. But since the principle 
upon which such music teaching is based has not only long 
since been discarded, and also since the success of the new 
method in music has been well established, it is unfortunate 
that the syllabus does not indicate by its scheme of study 
the appreciation of this new approach to the very difficult 
subject of sight reading of music. 

Again, granting the great importance of drill in sight 
reading, both in reference to the practical result of being 
able to read music and to the musical intelligence that can 
be developed by such work — thus enlarging the sphere of 
possible musical appreciation — it must be borne in mind 
that a very large proportion of the pupils will make very 
little use of their music-reading ability. What is of prime 
importance throughout the elementary school, therefore, is 
that good standards of taste be established both for the 
music and its effective rendering. Consequently the ade- 



104 Standards for Instruction 

quate rendering of good selections, not only by the class 
but individually, should be the end toward which pupils 
and teachers should strive, and in this accomplishment 
standards of judgment both with reference to the composi- 
tion and its rendering should be developed that would be 
of the highest practical value in improving and strengthen- 
ing the taste of the future citizen for good music. Unfor- 
tunately, in the course of study the emphasis is placed upon 
book work increasingly through the grades, with reference 
to the ability to read at sight. In fact, one might say that 
this is practically the only standard held up. 

The music as planned, therefore, is peculiarly technical. 
It allows the formal side to be uppermost in the earlier 
years — as in the old style of reading — and it makes tech- 
nical skill the final aim. The ideals that the pupil gets are 
in the direction of skill in sight-reading, and this unfor- 
tunately with little reference to beauty of tone or expression. 

Provision for Individuality 

Work in sight singing from the book is begun in Grade 
3B. It is natural that in this and the following two years 
there should be a pretty strong emphasis on the technical 
side of music reading. Such work requires to a peculiar 
degree the ability to translate arbitrary symbols presented 
to the eye into musical ideas. The ability to look ahead 
and coordinate what is coming, so as to know how to render 
the passage, is similar to that of intelligent word reading, 
except that in music it is much more complicated. To make 
this rapid coordination possible, intensive drill in the com- 
prehension of what the staff calls for in its sound equiva- 
lent and tonal relationships is necessary. 

While accuracy and speed are essentials in such drill, 
the most important consideration is that the individual 
pupil should do the work. It is not merely class knowledge 
and skill that are wanted, but knowledge and skill of the 
individual. As a help to the establishment of this indi- 
vidual responsibility, it was highly important that the syl- 



Application of Standards 105 

labi should show clearly the order in which the various 
tasks should be undertaken — that, indeed, they should es- 
tablish a standard sequence — so that ordinarily no pupil 
should be allowed to proceed to a given topic before reason- 
ably mastering those preceding it. But the course of study 
and its accompanying syllabi, while giving minute direc- 
tions as to the particular keys, intervals, and manner of 
doing, set nowhere such a standard for any grade. Ac- 
cordingly, there is a tendency to hold pupils for no particu- 
lar results. Those children that need the greatest care and 
attention are carried along by the more musical ones, and 
they pass on from grade to grade, without even being con- 
scious of what they don't know. 

The peculiar importance of this point is seen in the fact 
that in music, more than in any other study, the work is 
done in concert. The rhythmic nature of music encourages 
that method. A course of study, while not demanding 
identical work from all pupils, should demand that a few 
of the fundamental facts in their logical sequence should 
be known by every child who is intelligent enough to do 
the work of the grade. It should not be possible, as was 
recently the case, for nearly half of a class entering a girls' 
high school to be unable to give the pitch names of the 
staff. It is one thing to respond to dictation work or to 
sing a passage with the class as a whole, and a very dif- 
ferent matter to do the same things individually. 

It was the duty of the syllabus to check the tendency 
toward concert work alone, not only by suggesting a cer- 
tain sequence that each pupil should necessarily follow, but 
also by directly emphasizing the importance of individual 
singing. The omission of these precautions shows a pecu- 
liar disregard of individuality. 

Organization 

This demand for individual accomplishment on the part 
of the pupils could be greatly stimulated if, in the organ- 
ization of the work, definite requirements could be made 



106 Standards for Instruction 

of all those who plan to teach. A very large number of 
the girls who continue their study beyond the eighth grade 
expect eventually to teach. To know the requirements in 
music would influence their work even down to the seventh 
and eighth grades, and it would materially help the work 
in the high and normal schools. Unfortunately, the music 
in many of the high schools, owing to the difficulty of 
arranging programs, obliges students of different years to 
sing in the same section or class. This makes all orderly 
work impossible, and coupled with the lack of any definite 
requirements either as to application or scholarship, such 
as are expected in other studies, tends to reduce the sing- 
ing to a mere entertainment exercise. This attitude in the 
high schools is reflected into the grades. 

The dignity of music demands that a more definite or- 
ganization of the whole field be established, and such or- 
ganization should be most clearly revealed in the curriculum 
and syllabi. 

To sum up, it is suggested, First, that both the motive 
for singing and the style of rendering songs would be 
greatly helped if classic selections were listed appropriate 
both for the grades and the schools as a whole. 

Second : Proper attention to relative values requires that 
technical knowledge and skill be more subordinated to 
school singing and musical taste. 

Third : The individuality of pupils should be more fully 
provided for by much more attention to individual attain- 
ment in contrast with concert work or class attainment. 

Fourth: The subject-matter should be better organized, 
so that there may be far more definite requirements for 
each grade, both as to application and scholarship. 

NATURE STUDY AND ELEMENTARY SCIENCE 

Provision for Motive 

The syllabi for nature study of Grades i to 5, and for 
the elementary science of Grades 7 and 8, are dominated 



Application of Standards 107 

by the scientific point of view, which properly prevails in 
the later study of science in college. The apparent motive 
is to teach the facts of systematic science, and there is 
no provision for selection and organization of materials 
in line with the widely accepted view that the motive of 
nature study should be relation of natural things to human 
life. 

The first illustration in support of this criticism is taken 
from the syllabus for nature study (page 15) : 

" It should be clearly understood that no class is expected 
to study all of the topics in nature study that are suggested 
in the syllabus. The pupils should be taught to recognize 
and to name all of the subjects under each caption, but 
only a few topics should be selected for systematic obser- 
vation and study. When other material suitable for the 
work is more accessible, it may be substituted for that men- 
tioned in the syllabus." 

Note the emphasis upon " learning names " and " syste- 
matic observation." But there is no suggestion of relating 
the study to human life, or even of the dynamic point of 
view, which requires interpretation of structure in terms 
of function. This clearly indicates the viewpoint of science 
rather than of nature study. 

The motive of organized science is as prominent in the 
syllabus for elementary science as it is in college courses. 
In fact, the syllabus for elementary science is in outline a 
close imitation of a college laboratory course in physics. 
In support of this statement, a few quotations will suffice : 

" Generalize results obtained in [Experiments] 16, 18, 
and 19 in form of an equation. Give problems applying 
this equation. By diagram show that distances traversed 
by force and load are proportional to their lever arms, and 
therefore force multiplied by distance-force-moves equals 
load multiplied by distance-load-moves." (Page 33.) 

(" The teacher should here develop very simply the ideas 
of molecular structure of matter and of heat as a form of 
molecular motion.") (Page 42.) 



108 Standards for Instruction 

(" Discuss the three modes of propagation of heat illus- 
trated by Experiments 108 to 119.") (Page 45.) 

Such a course is so entirely out of line with elementary 
education that a complete reorganization is desirable. And 
the course for Grades 7 and 8 should not be reorganized 
as elementary physics, but as advanced nature study and 
introduction to general science. 

That is, the subject-matter should be selected with pri- 
mary reference to the pupils' interest rather than from the 
viewpoint of pure science. 

Attention to Relative Values 

The scientific and encyclopedic points of view being so 
dominant, relative values have necessarily received little 
consideration. 

The very important points included under " Natural 
Phenomena " are omitted from the A divisions of Grades 
1 to 4. 

Probably no other topics are so usable and useful in all 
schools as are these inorganic nature-study lessons. It 
would seem that the same broad subjects in this field should 
be included in the work for the two divisions of each grade, 
and that optional topics might be suggested for study in 
the more advanced division. 

The present " elementary science," limited to physics, 
excludes many elementary ideas of chemistry that are more 
important for grammar schools than are many of the topics 
of physics outlined here. In order to find time for the 
chemical experiments needed, the present outline of physics, 
subdivided into gravity, mechanical powers, mechanics of 
liquids and gases, magnetism of electricity, sound, and heat, 
might well give way to an outline of chemico-physical na- 
ture study based on daily life and interests. 

Further suggestions in regard to provision for relative 
values follow in the discussion of organization. 



Application of Standards 109 

Organisation 

There is need of some attempt at organization of the 
course of nature study, for most of the topics now stand 
as isolated as did those of the former object lessons. In 
the previous discussion of motivation and relative values, 
also, it was suggested that the entire course of elementary 
science should be reorganized from the nature-study point 
of view in place of the present imitation of systematic 
science. 

Trees, birds, insects, and many other assigned topics need 
not be studied entirely as isolated specimens ; but the studies 
should be grouped together so as to bring out the human 
interest in some larger problems, such as conservation of 
forests and bird life, influence of insects on agriculture, 
the usefulness of animals and plants to man, the develop- 
ment of individual animals and plants. Such organiza- 
tion is largely applicable to grades above the third. A 
limited number of trees and birds may profitably be con- 
sidered in each primary year, but in grades above the first 
three there might well be intensive series of lessons which 
bring together the main facts about questions of general 
interest. 

A prominent part of the nature study ("elementary 
science") of the seventh and eighth grades should center 
around hygiene, which offers splendid opportunities for in- 
troducing the most useful ideas of elementary chemistry 
and physics. Moreover, the inclusion of hygiene (with the 
necessary physiology) in the " elementary science " will 
place the important study of the human body on a laboratory 
or observational basis, which it cannot now have in its pres- 
ent relation to physical training. Probably the weakest 
point in the entire curriculum for nature study and ele- 
mentary science in the New York schools is the complete 
separation of hygiene from the observational studies of 
natural things selected for illustration by the best teachers 
of the subject. For the sake of better teaching both of 



no Standards for Instruction 

hygiene and of the introduction to science ("elementary- 
science ") the two subjects should be united in an organized 
course. 

The present syllabus of nature study offers little oppor- 
tunity and less encouragement for correlation with other 
subjects. 

Much of the inorganic nature study, including the weather 
studies of Grades i to 5, should be arranged as preliminary 
to, or correlated with, geography. Still other inorganic 
topics, such as air, water, and heat, need to be related to 
hygiene. 

In the higher grades, also, the relations of this field to 
the physical aspects of geography, to household arts and 
industrial art, should be clearly stated in the syllabus. 

On the other hand, the recommendation that " stories, 
fables, songs, and other literature pertaining to objects 
studied should be read" (Syllabus, page 14) leads too 
easily, in practise, to the substitution of reading for that 
observation which is fundamental in nature study. The 
nature-study time should hardly be used for reading 
" stories, fables, and songs." These are important for cor- 
related English lessons, but have no proper place in nature 
study. The only legitimate reading for the nature-study 
period is that which helps with the observations or gives 
supplementary facts that are scientific and in harmony with 
the most approved aims of nature study. All other read- 
ing, such as stories and fables, should be judged and selected 
from the viewpoint of English, and read in the periods 
assigned for that subject. 

In brief, every study must have its own purposes, and all 
subject-matter finding a place in a study should be chosen 
primarily with reference to those purposes. 

The omission of nature study from the sixth year makes 
a break in a continuity which ought to extend from Grade 
1 to Grade 8, inclusive. This is not serious with the present 
syllabus, for, as indicated above, there are at present no 
obvious attempts at continuity and little correlation; but in 



Application of Standards 1 1 1 

a revised syllabus, which attempts continuity from Grade I 
to Grade 8, there should be regular nature study planned 
for Grade 6. 

Provision for Exercise of Initiative 

So far as the teacher is concerned, self-expression is very 
much circumscribed by (i) the advised formula method, 
and (2) by the prescribed materials for study. 

( 1 ) The method for teaching nature study prescribed 
at the bottom of page 15 in the syllabus (quoted in the 
foregoing under " Motivation ") is an exceedingly limited 
formula, tending not only to insure that all topics will be 
treated alike, but also that they will be treated very super- 
ficially. The formula for teaching elementary science has 
the same tendencies (page 29). 

(2) The selection of materials for nature study in Grades 
1 to 5 appears to be based almost entirely upon the kind 
of nature study adapted to suburban or rural regions, and 
there has been almost no planning for the city schools. It 
is generally admitted that even in the most congested city 
districts there should be some nature study based on mate- 
rials imported from rural regions, and hence not drawn 
from the environment of the school children; but the 
present syllabus is too exclusively based on such foreign 
materials. 

However, the widely different environmental conditions in 
Greater New York make a uniform syllabus of nature study 
for all schools especially undesirable and unsatisfactory. 

Nature study in its best interpretation deals with nature 
in relation to daily life, and this obviously demands wide 
differentiation between nature study for city and country 
schools, and even for schools in different parts of the city 
itself. 

Moreover, the ability of teachers to give instruction in 
nature study varies more, even, than their ability to teach 
music. A single course of study in nature for a great city, 
therefore, based on the assumption that all schools can have 



H2 , Standards for Instruction 

much the same materials for study, and that all teachers 
can teach it, ignores the plainest facts; and, if enforced, it 
must lead to results that are at least questionable. If a 
teacher were to show as little regard for individual varia- 
tions as this curriculum shows, she would be condemned 
outright as lacking the first elements of a real teacher. 

The part of any curriculum in nature study that can be 
properly required of all the schools is very small indeed, 
consisting of such topics as opening of buds, weather 
studies, common vegetables and fruits, germination of 
seeds, and a few very common wild flowers. Beyond that, 
there might be only suggested a series of well-organized 
topics, from among which teachers might select according 
to availability of materials, environment of the school, pos- 
sible correlations, ability of the teacher, and interest of the 
pupils. 

And even then not very much is likely to be accomplished 
in many of the schools until ample provision is made for 
supplying the schools with desired materials, just as it has 
long been the custom in connection with the high schools. 

As the syllabus now stands, no teacher deserves censure 
for omitting all nature-study observations, for there is little 
more justice in expecting teachers to get the necessary 
materials than there would be in expecting them to pro- 
vide pupils with writing materials and books. The many 
teachers who, working with the present syllabus, are pro- 
viding the materials and conducting creditable lessons, de- 
serve the highest commendation for giving to the schools 
what, in all justice, should not be expected of them. 

Considering the fact that nature study is a new subject 
to most teachers, and that few normal schools give adequate 
preparation for teaching it, the syllabus should by all means 
be supplemented with some approved lesson-plans on typical 
topics, with notes on materials, and with specific references 
to books to be found in school libraries. 

In brief, we find this course in nature study and ele- 
mentary science ignoring interest on the part of young 



Application of Standards 113 

people, disregarding relative values among facts, merely 
enumerating topics rather than offering an organized out- 
line, — particularly for the first five grades, — and paying 
the minimum attention to individual conditions. 



ARITHMETIC 

Organization of Subject-matter 

The organization of the course of study is relentlessly 
logical. Thus the addition tables of i's and 2's are pre- 
sented in the iA grade; the tables of 3's and 4's in the 
iB grade; and the remaining tables of the 5's, 6's, 7's, 8's, 
and o/s are completed in the 2A grade. The multiplication 
tables through 5X9 are taught in the 2B grade, and the 
remaining tables through 9X9 are taught in the 3A grade. 

In the 3B grade there is rapid drill on the tables already 
learned, and in the 4 A grade the learning of tables is con- 
tinued through 12 X 12. The same careful grading is 
planned in the study of " bills " in each grade from 4B 
to 6B. The syllabus contains the following statement for 
the 4B and 5A grades : " Bills made out and receipted ; 
the model should have date, name, address, and business of 
the maker; name and address of the debtor." In the 5B 
grade the terms " debtor " and " creditor " are to be 
properly used and defined, and in the next two grades bills 
are to be paid by checks. The same tendency toward logical 
arrangement is shown in the teaching of dry measure. 
Pints are taught in the iB grade, quarts and pecks in the 
2A grade, bushels in the 3A grade, and contents of bins 
in bushels in the 6A grade. The cases here given are 
representative. 

Such logical organization has two evident advantages. 
In the first place, the grading is so even that the work 
assigned to each of the several grades is about equally diffi- 
cult for the children concerned. In the second place, 
teachers are not in doubt regarding what the pupils have 



114 Standards for Instruction 

had in the previous grades, or what is expected in their 
own. It is very convenient for superintendents, and prin- 
cipals also, when they desire to obtain a quick estimate of 
the work in merely inculcating knowledge accomplished by 
the teacher. 

But this arrangement of subject-matter is just the one 
that educators have been trying to escape during the last 
twenty years. Its defect is that, while intended for chil- 
dren, it is planned entirely from the viewpoint of the adult. 
That is, it is coldly logical, where it should be psycho- 
logical, or adapted to child nature. Consider the addition 
tables, for instance. According to the course, the pupil is 
expected to spend a few weeks on adding by i's and 2's 
before proceeding to 3's. But if he has any need at all 
for number his requirements are not limited to adding by 
1 or 2. The sum of 4 and 3 is likely to be required as 
often as the sum of 8 and 1, and the former combination 
is no more difficult to learn than the latter. 

Likewise, the facts connected with dry measure are not 
best gained by learning first the pint, then the quart and 
peck, and last of all the bushel, with a pause of a few 
months after each effort. 

That young children use number extensively outside of 
school cannot be doubted. But their approach to the sub- 
ject is through scoring in such games as dominoes, bean 
bag, and shuffleboard; through measuring, in connection 
with the making of articles out of paper, cardboard, string, 
and wood ; through buying food in small quantities, etc. 

This being true, if a division is to be made in the learning 
of the forty-five combinations, the basis of the division 
should be that of the magnitude of the sum or product, as 
suggested by observing how children of a given age actually 
use number. 

Any one who has observed little children, with toothpicks 
in hand for illustrative material, laboriously going up and 
down the tables, saying 5 less 1 equals 4; 5 less 2 equals 
3; 5 less 3 equals 2; 5 less 4 equals 1, must have felt 



Application of Standards 115 

sorry for the little tots. That is too systematic for any 
person but a philosopher. 

It is the same old question of " rigid sequence " that is 
slowly being rooted out of the industrial arts and the 
kindergarten. It used to dominate in the readers, but no 
longer. Such sequence is resorted to only when one has 
forgotten one's childhood and lacks the higher viewpoints 
of modern education. 

Attention to Relative Values 

The planning of a course of study is a severe test of 
one's conception of the relative worth of different facts. 
As long as the disciplinary conception of education pre- 
vailed, the selection of the various topics in arithmetic 
depended very largely on their fitness as means for training 
the mind in such virtues as love for the truth, accuracy, 
perseverance, and the like. The science of number was then 
more emphasized than the art of computation, and almost 
any kind of subject-matter was admitted. 

The results that were obtained by this method were not 
satisfactory, and there was an insistent demand for a mathe- 
matical curriculum that was more closely connected with the 
affairs of life. In many quarters the schools attempted to 
meet the difficulty by organizing a course of study in arith- 
metic which was utilitarian in the narrow sense that it 
attempted to make the pupil efficient in the counting room 
or store exclusively. Emphasis was placed on the art of 
computation, on business forms, and short methods. That 
also failed to satisfy. 

At present there is a demand that is more important than 
either of these two. Society recognizes that not every 
pupil in the school is to become a clerk or an artisan, but 
that every one is and will continue to be a member of a 
social organization in which savings banks, insurance for 
fire, life, and accident, and corporations of various sorts, 
are important factors. The success and happiness of an 
individual will depend much on an understanding and ap- 



n6 Standards for Instruction 

preciation of the various institutions with which he must 
deal. This conception of the needs of the individual has 
brought about a demand for a practical treatment of arith- 
metic in the elementary school. This standard for the selec- 
tion of subjects emphasizes the applicability of what is to 
be taught to the actual affairs of life, a provision that will 
add life to the subject and thus give a special guarantee 
of the mastery of its fundamentals. 1 

Partial payments, highest common divisor, cube root, 
compound proportion, and like subjects, which are now 
taught in the city, have no place in such a course. Other 
subjects, such as mensuration, deserve treatment only to 
the extent to which their limited utility entitles them. Most 
important is the inclusion of such subjects as come in close 
touch with the affairs of life. The work of a certain sixth- 
grade teacher in a private school in New York may be men- 
tioned as indicative of this broader conception of arith- 
metic. During the visit of the fleet of war vessels the 
pupils of this grade wrote a letter of inquiry to the officer 
of one vessel concerning the amount of food required by 
his crew. This information was furnished and became the 
basis of some very instructive lessons on the cost of food 
and of some effective drill in computation. An article in a 
magazine setting forth the relative expense of delivering 
goods by automobile and by wagons gave the opportunity to 
teach intelligently the meaning of percentage. 

The New York course of study gives no indication of 
appreciation of values of this sort. The various topics to 
be studied in each grade are printed in order, without sug- 
gestion along this line. The syllabus does indicate values in 
certain cases; i.e., special emphasis is laid upon certain 
work in each grade ; but that is an emphasis that requires 
only special drill. 

There is, however, a paragraph in the Introductory Note 

1 Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers, simple 
fractions, both common and decimal, percentage and its simplest applications. 



Application of Standards 117 

of the syllabus that is of interest in this connection. It runs 1 
as follows: 

" Numerical relations may be found wherever the mind 
seeks them; hence problems may be derived and should 
be derived from the life of the home, the school, the farm, 
the laboratory, the factory, as well as from the shop and 
bank. The limitation of problems to transactions in dollars 
and cents tends to give practical arithmetic a purely formal 
and disciplinary character; on the other hand, excursions 
into other fields of human activity, while sacrificing nothing 
of the disciplinary value of the subject, give it a varied and 
interesting content. Problems may be classified as simple, 
or those involving only one operation ; and as complex, or 
those involving more than one operation." 

This sounds well, but its value depends upon how seri- 
ously it is followed up later. But it is not followed up; 
indeed, it is to some extent even opposed. 

In the 6A grade the statement for problems is " practical 
problems involving denominate numbers applied to every- 
day business usage." The measurements for this grade, 
however, include the following: 

" Contents of bins in bushels; memorizing 2,150.4 cu. in. 
in one bushel; contents in gallons; memorizing 231 cu. in., 
one gallon. Reduction of contents in bushels and gallons to 
cubic measure. Surfaces of rectangular solids. Compari- 
son of the units of weight used by the jeweler with those 
used by the grocer; memorizing 5,760 gr., one pound Troy; 
7,000 gr., one pound avoirdupois." 

It would be difficult to think of any subject of less prac- 
tical importance, when applied to every-day business usage, 
than the comparison of Troy and avoirdupois weights ; and 
the utility of each of the other measurements named above 
is at least open to question. 

The syllabus calls for the consideration of the weight 
of potatoes, wheat, and oats without memorizing; but the 
weight of a gallon of water is to be memorized. As a 
consumer the pupil will probably have occasion to buy 



n8 Standards for Instruction 

potatoes, and possibly wheat and oats ; but the probability 
of his using the knowledge that i cubic foot of water 
weighs 62.5 pounds is remote. Furthermore, although 
throughout the syllabus much is said regarding business 
application of number facts, not until the 8A grade is any 
attention directed to those institutions that are vital factors 
in the determination of the values of arithmetical facts for 
the elementary school. In this grade business forms and 
usages are studied, and the function of savings banks, banks 
of deposit, and other corporations is briefly explained. If 
the syllabus is serious in the desire to connect arithmetic 
with life, why should it not have led the way by giving ex- 
amples of such connection in each grade? The explanation 
seems to be that, after all, it is the science of arithmetic 
that the authors have in mind. Arithmetic might be used to 
reveal the quantitative side of the life about us, in industry, 
commerce, business, and city government, in particular, just 
as fine art reveals the esthetic side, and literature the esthetic 
and moral side. But the science of arithmetic may be as 
unrelated to practical affairs as the science of grammar to 
daily speech ; and the syllabus tends to favor this isolation. 
Further work of the eighth year, besides the business 
forms just mentioned, is the mensuration of plane and 
solid figures, such as the areas of parallelograms, trape- 
zoids, and regular polygons ; the convex surfaces of pyra- 
mids, cones, and spheres ; and the volumes of pyramids and 
cones. Other figures, such as the rectangle, triangle, and 
circle, are also measured. Certainly the mensuration of 
such forms as were last mentioned is far more important 
than like operations with such unusual figures as those 
given before ; yet there is nothing in the course or syllabus 
to indicate that any difference in values is recognized. One 
statement in particular regarding the problems for this 
grade gives a clue to the conception of the relative values 
of the business forms and the mensuration. It says, 
" Problems should involve the indirect relations growing 
out of the rules for mensuration, as: If the area of a 



Application of Standards 119 

circle is 314.16 square inches, what is the radius? Prob- 
lems giving rise to simple equations involving two un- 
known quantities." Such topics as expenses and support 
of the city government and the cost of furnishing a house 
are not once mentioned. If relative values had received 
careful attention, not only would these last topics have 
been included, but many other topics now included would 
probably have been eliminated; for example, the least 
common multiple and greatest common divisor as definite 
and independent topics (now required in 5 A) ; compound 
and complex fractions (in 5B) ; problems in denominate 
numbers involving three and more successive units (6A) ; 
the whole of numerous tables in denominate numbers, where 
only some of the facts are really wanted; the metric system 
(in 7A) ; and true discount (in 7B). 

Provision for Motive 

The foregoing discussion of organization and values 
brings us to the matter of motivation. The modern con- 
ception of the importance of interest as a factor in the 
learning process is leading the school to recognize the pupil's 
right to view matters in the light of his own experiences. 
To be of value, subject-matter must be sufficiently near to 
the child's life to present problems which he feels it is 
necessary to solve. Thus it happens that plays and games 
and household accounts have a legitimate place in the 
arithmetic work. 

The syllabus provides in a very mild way for motivation 
by having the children learn to count by using objects, 
sounds, and motions ; by reading time from the clock ; by 
making change; and by stating that the problems should 
be practical. But on the whole, it makes little provision for 
the pupils' motivation. The devotion to rigid sequence, as 
discussed under " Organization," indicates this. 

Much that was said concerning values would apply with 
equal force here. Although pupils are to learn a consider- 
able number of business fractions, and their percentage 



120 Standards for Instruction 

equivalents, there is no indication that these facts are ap- 
proached in any concrete setting, or grow out of any need 
felt by the pupils. 

There are two signs of want of motive in arithmetic: 
First, an excessive amount of drill; second, inability to 
solve real problems. A very large part of the teaching 
in this subject consists of drill, because of the want of 
fresh ways of approaching and reviewing the facts. And 
it is not at all uncommon to find classes able to do re- 
markably rapid and accurate work with such subjects as 
cancellation and the finding of the highest common divisor, 
that are unable to do simple problems that involve actual 
situations. Such classes have been drilled until they know 
just what is expected of them in the more or less formal 
processes, but real problems are so remote from their school 
experience that the terms employed tend to confuse rather 
than make concrete. The curriculum and syllabus exert 
no influence in opposition to these tendencies. 

Mention has been made of the constructive and inven- 
tional exercises found in the 7 A and 7B grades. In the 
Introductory Note three claims are made for this work: 
It has educational value, prepares for the work of mensura- 
tion in the next grade, and gives a knowledge of the con- 
structive principles employed in mechanical drawing and 
construction and in shop work. Even if the first claim 
be granted, it provides no motive for the pupil to do this 
work. There is lacking even the stimulus that is operative 
in formal geometry, where the consciousness of finding an 
invincible proof is a source of satisfaction. 

Of the problems of mensuration in the next grade, very 
few — as already shown — have any practical value in 
every-day life; and even these are more effectively and 
economically learned by memorizing when the need arises 
than by logical reasoning when no motive exists. 

Finally, the claim that this work prepares for mechanical 
drawing and shop work raises the question as to whether 
this type of work belongs to arithmetic or drawing. The 



Application of Standards 121 

fact that it does find a place in the drawing seems to show 
that there is where it belongs. But if the motive is found 
in its relation to shop work, and the latter is taken only by 
the boys, then why should it be required of both boys and 
girls? The fact is, it seems as if little value were really 
attached to these constructive and inventional exercises. 
They, together with much of the mensuration, impress the 
critic as padding between the sixth year and the eighth 
so as to have a " full course." 

Provision for Exercise of Initiative 

Under the heading of " Requirements " the Introductory 
Note states that " Both the course of study and the syllabus 
provide for the minimum requirements. Pupils capable of 
more rapid advancement should not be confined to the limits 
set in the syllabus for the grade." 

The purpose of a minimum course of study is usually 
understood to be to make requirements so small that both 
teachers and the brighter pupils will have opportunity to 
follow their own bent to some extent. But the course is 
so full that teachers generally believe that nothing more 
could be undertaken in the time allotted to the subject. 

The syllabus, at any rate, is almost destitute of sugges- 
tions as to what might be used to supplement the required 
work. The expressions " etc.," " exercise similar to," and 
" for example " each occur once. Moreover, the possibility 
of initiative depends much on an understanding of the aims 
and purposes of the activity involved. As might be ex- 
pected from its failure to recognize values, the syllabus does 
not state aims or purposes except as they are implied in the 
claims for the constructive and inventional exercises quoted, 
and in the statement that " special importance is attached to 
the thorough mastery of the combinations in addition, sub- 
traction, multiplication, and division." Intelligent initiative 
on the part of teacher or principal under these conditions is 
extremely difficult. 



122 Standards for Instruction 

Why should not the syllabus have offered numerous sug- 
gestions, if this was really to be a minimum course? 

The most important factor in preventing initiative in this 
study is the widespread belief that teachers are to be judged, 
and their standing determined, by the showing their pupils 
make when tested in conformity with this course and sylla- 
bus. In one school the head of department has distributed 
mimeographed copies of problems that are to be done each 
month, and a careful analysis shows that they are all se- 
lected in accordance with the statements found in the 
syllabus. 

The special work of the 5A grade is common fractions. 
This work is described as follows : " Oral. Special atten- 
tion to business fractions, e. g., cost of articles at I2j4c. 
(J6),ati6^c. (%),at33j4c. (jj), at $i.i2j4, at $1.16^, 
at $1,333/3. Written. Easy fractions. Least common mul- 
tiple developed and applied in addition and subtraction of 
common fractions; greatest common divisor developed and 
applied in reduction of fractions to lowest terms; cancel- 
lation developed and applied in the multiplication of frac- 
tions. Definitions reviewed." 

With such an abstract outline as a guide, with the knowl- 
edge that the instruction will be rated on the speed and 
accuracy in exactly these topics, and with no suggestions 
as to broad purposes within whose range there would be 
some possibility of choice, what prospect is there here of 
any initiative on the part of either teachers or pupils? 

One thing that might have been done is suggested by 
the course of study in another city, which contains this 
statement : " The chief difficulty that pupils have in acquir- 
ing the fractional processes is to interpret clearly the un- 
familiar and so perplexing forms and terms used. The 
problem of the teacher, therefore, is to enable pupils to 
interpret these conventional symbols in terms of their own 
experience." 

Here the teacher is informed that there is something else 
to watch besides mere processes ; namely, the many ways in 



Application of Standards 123 

which these processes are called for and used in life. That 
suggests the desirability of introducing the pupils into actual 
examples of this sort, such as the pupil might himself meet, 
in which undertaking a large degree of originality may 
be shown by the teacher, and by the pupil as well. 

The work of the 8B grade is a general review of the 
mathematical course. The syllabus states that " the nature 
of the review is left in the greatest measure possible to the 
good judgment of the principals and teachers. Generally 
it should be planned with a view to correcting existing de- 
fects in the mathematical work of the pupils, and should 
include daily practise in the four fundamental operations 
with integers, common fractions, and decimals." This 
might seem to invite initiative, at last; but the fact is that 
many teachers assert this to be as dead as any part of the 
whole course, because a very definite test as to skill and 
accuracy is known to await them at the end of the term, 
so that the work, both in kind and quantity, is prescribed 
for them in full. Here, again, the syllabus might have 
protected itself against such a charge by requiring that the 
unity of certain parts of the course, as revealed by under- 
lying principles, be established, and by suggesting other new 
and broad viewpoints. But that attempt is not made. 

These, then, in brief, are the characteristics of the course 
and syllabus : They stand for a rigid sequence of subject- 
matter, which ignores the grouping customary in both child 
and adult life ; they contain many things of doubtful value 
— in fact, so many that, if they were all omitted, the 
course in arithmetic might probably be reduced from eight 
to six years without serious loss ; they make practically no 
provision for approaching number through its relation to 
practical affairs, although they suggest that it be so ap- 
proached; and by their omission of reference to workable 
aims and principles, as well as by the abundance of require- 
ments, they make it extremely difficult for teachers or pupils 
to exercise initiative in this field. 



124 Standards for Instruction 



DRAWING, CONSTRUCTION WORK, COOKING, AND SEWING 

The program includes : 

Drawing — through the eight years for both boys and 
girls. Construction work — for boys and girls undifferen- 
tiated through the first two and one half years. 

Boys — Cord and raffia work through the third year, and 
shop work through the seventh and eighth grades. All 
hand work for boys during the fourth, fifth, and sixth years 
is included in the drawing. 

Sewing — for girls from the second half of the third 
year through the sixth year. In schools not having cooking, 
advanced sewing is given in Grades 7 and 8. 

Cooking — for girls in Grades 7 and 8 in most schools. 

Provision for Organization of Subject-matter 

In brief, the organization of these several subjects may 
be summarized as follows: 

Drawing 

The work is almost wholly of two types: representative 
and mechanical. The drawing of commonplace objects, 
singly and in groups, together with quite a bit of copying 
as a method of developing technique, and the representation 
of furniture and interiors for perspective, makes up the 
chief work in representative drawing. In Grades 7 and 8 
there is added a great deal of work in constructing geo- 
metric forms and in making working drawings for hypo- 
thetical projects in wood or metal. There is no direct 
relationship between drawings made and projects actually 
constructed in a shop or elsewhere. The sequence of work 
is determined upon a purely technical basis. 

Constructive and Shop Work 

The constructive work of the first two and a half years 
is intended to " develop in the young child the power of 
motor control and coordination." Subject-matter is lim- 



Application of Standards 125 

ited almost wholly to the ideas involved in the simple 
processes of knotting, looping, weaving, and stitching in 
cord and raffia. A very small quantity of work is done 
in paper or cardboard. Very simple and meager oppor- 
tunity is given for choice in color and design. 

In shop work, Grades 7 and 8, the work is planned on 
the basis of a technical sequence in construction, chiefly of 
joints. Projects are chosen which provide for a good se- 
quence in the use of the common wood-working tools. 
Technical efficiency is the chief aim. In the new course, just 
developing, groups of models for each particular element of 
technique are provided, from which teachers may select as 
best fits their own needs. 

Sewing 

In the sewing the sequence is definitely technical. The 
work throughout is arranged in two parts — technique first 
developed through specific " exercises " or practise pieces, 
and then application to some usable article. The " applica- 
tion " may not be made until a certain degree of skill has 
been attained in the " exercise." The chief object seems 
to be efficiency in sewing as a process. 

Cooking 

In addition to a sequence of work providing for a simple 
knowledge of the cooking of numerous types of food, and 
of food principles, the course covers simpler phases of house- 
keeping, laundering, care of the dining-room, table service, 
nursing, dietaries, home sanitation, and marketing. In all 
of these topics there is a pretty well-organized body of 
thought provided in connection with the practical work. 
" Thorough housekeeping and the making of a home " 
are offered as the endpoints toward which details are to 
contribute. 

In all phases of work in this field, organization of ma- 
terial is on the basis of technical sequence. Technique is 
prominent over everything else, and the technical sequences, 
as such, are good. 



126 Standards for Instruction 

Thought material related to tasks that might be expected 
to make a strong appeal to children is all relegated to Inci- 
dental Instruction, save in cooking, where it is specifically 
provided for. The relationship of principles to practise, 
also, is markedly absent save in cooking. 

The several subjects are so completely isolated that they 
do not correlate with other subjects, or even with each 
other, where this would be especially desirable, as in draw- 
ing and shop work, or art work and textiles. There are 
occasional exceptions in the teaching, but these are not pro- 
vided for specifically by the curriculum. 

The curriculum is uniform for all districts — alike for 
those populated by the professional and commercial workers 
and those populated by the hand workers in distinctly indus- 
trial neighborhoods. This of itself emphasizes the disci- 
plinary aim and the technical sequence. 

The organization, therefore, in all these subjects except 
cooking is planned almost solely on a mechanical basis, and 
correlation is omitted. 

Provision for Motivation 

In drawing, sewing, cooking, and in all but the last half 
of the last year in shop work, the projects are rather defi- 
nitely prescribed by the course of study, or by the officials 
of the department in charge. In shop work during the last 
half-year any models are permitted which incorporate the 
constructive principles prescribed. Under the plan of 
groups of models from which to choose, now under de- 
velopment, more flexibility in shop work will be provided 
for the teacher; but this will not affect the pupils to any 
great extent. 

In so far as the curriculum is concerned, motivation of 
the pupil is not considered as a problem at all, save as 
incidentally provided in the fact that children like activity 
and like to work with materials. The problems undertaken 
are not their problems, but are prescribed for them. As the 
products made are theirs, they may exercise choice in the 



Application of Standards 127 

use to which they put them ; but this is practically the limit 
to which motivation may apply. In drawing, working 
drawings are prescribed for part of the work in Grades 
7 and 8, but the drawings made are not of projects to be 
used in shops. " I would rather my boys had had no 
drawing at all than that which they now get in working 
drawings. It is a hindrance rather than a help. They 
have so many wrong notions about it that it would be 
easier to teach them from the beginning," said one shop 
teacher. 

Assuming that the development of an interest in the in- 
dustrial life about us is a great purpose in this field, just 
as a taste for reading is a great purpose in teaching litera- 
ture, the neglect of motivation in these subjects would be 
paralleled in literature if all the literary selections were 
made and arranged in sequence solely on the basis of their 
mechanical difficulties. While that plan would kill an Eng- 
lish course, it would hardly prove more deadly in that field 
than in this. 

Provision for Initiative 

The provision already noted, for selection among a pre- 
scribed group of models, or selection without other limita- 
tion than that prescribed technical elements are included, 
permits of some choice in upper grades. But this is so 
very insignificant, as presented in the courses of study, that 
one may fairly say that it was not considered as a problem 
in making the courses. It is not specified who may make 
choices. Teachers may prescribe all of the work and fulfil 
the courses of study, not permitting any initiative on the 
part of children in the matter. 

Consideration of Relative Values 

The curriculum provides practically no opportunity for 
consideration of relative values. Suggestions indicating 
the relationships of the work to life and considerations of 



128 Standards for Instruction 

worth are relegated to a place entirely subordinate to tech- 
nical processes. They are suggested as appropriate for 
" incidental instruction," which usually results in their omis- 
sion. The very arrangement of the work (as in sewing), 
exercises first, then applications — practise pieces, in which 
a certain standard of excellence is to be attained, before 
using the activity in any project — exalts the technical aim 
above all else. 

Conclusions 

From the standpoint of mere technical sequence the cur- 
riculum is well developed in all of these subjects. In cook- 
ing the course is also meritorious in a well-proportioned 
amount of thought content concerned with principles and 
the more intimate relationships of home-making. 

On the other hand, the narrowness in organization, the 
failure to provide for motivation, or for initiative on the 
part of either pupils or teachers, and the entire neglect of 
all values not inherent in technical processes and activities, 
are all defects which reduce the educational values of the 
work to a minimum. Nothing less than a complete change 
of viewpoint in the organization and development of the 
curriculum, in terms of both social values and child psy- 
chology, could do much to broaden the work as it ought 
to be broadened. 



GEOGRAPHY 

A Sample of the Curriculum 

As a sample of the course and syllabus in geography, 
fairly representative of their attitude toward the standards 
proposed, the work for the second half of the fourth year 
— called Grade 4B — is here reproduced in full. It is 
taken from the course of study dated 191 1. 



Application of Standards 129 

Grade 4B 

Course of Study 

The Earth. Daily and yearly motions; zones. 

Eastern and Western Hemispheres. The continents; 
their location; bordering waters; chief mountain 
ranges; great rivers; animal and plant life; peo- 
ples; chief countries; large cities. 

Duties of citizens and public officials. 

Syllabus 

Earth Study. Daily and yearly motions ; the equator ; 
prime meridian and zones studied from a globe and from 
a map. 

The Continents. Names; location and relative posi- 
tions. Names and locations of the five oceans; North, 
Baltic, Black, Mediterranean, Red, China, Japan, Carib- 
bean and Bering seas; Gulf of St. Lawrence, Gulf of 
Mexico, Gulf of Guinea, Hudson Bay, Baffin Bay, Bay of 
Biscay, Bay of Bengal ; Appalachian, Rocky, Andes, Alps, 
Ural, Caucasus, and Himalaya mountains; Mississippi, 
Missouri, Ohio, Hudson, Columbia, Rio Grande, St. Law- 
rence, Amazon, Plata, Rhine, Volga, Danube, Nile, Kongo, 
and Yangtze rivers. 

Animal and Plant Life. A few of the principal ani- 
mals and plants of the hot, cold, and temperate countries. 

Peoples. White, black, yellow, brown, and red races. 

Chief Countries and Large Cities. Names and loca- 
tions of the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, 
England, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Austria, Hun- 
gary, Spain, Egypt, China, Japan; New York City, Chi- 
cago, Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, San Francisco, New 
Orleans, Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, St. 
Petersburg, Cairo, Calcutta, Hongkong, Pekin, Tokio. 

Good Citizenship. Street-cleaning Department. Col- 



130 Standards for Instruction 

lection and disposal of refuse ; use of rubbish boxes ; street 
cleaning; street-cleaning leagues. 

Duties of Citizens. To keep receptacles for garbage cov- 
ered; to refrain from throwing papers, fruit skins, and 
other refuse into the street or on the sidewalk; to refrain 
from obstructing sidewalks or thoroughfares, from throw- 
ing anything from windows, and from defacing walks, 
fences, or buildings. 

Health Department. Medical School Inspector; school 
nurse; vaccination; contagious diseases; necessity for 
quarantine; birth records and certificates; inspection of 
milk and other foods; sanitary supervision of water sup- 
ply; disinfection of houses. 

Duties of citizens in regard to cleanliness of body, of 
clothing, of dwelling, of streets ; immediate report of cases 
of contagion; respect for Health Board notices; anti-spit- 
ting laws; child labor laws; requisites for obtaining an 
employment certificate. 

(See Introductory Note in Civics.) 

Relation of Subject-matter to Purposes and Initiative of 
Children 

Take, first, the two standards together that test the ex- 
tent to which the interests, and the need of initiative on the 
part of the children — namely, the child's point of view — 
have influenced selection of subject-matter and suggestions 
on method. 

Confining our attention to the geography proper in the 
part reproduced (i. e., omitting from consideration at this 
point the part on Good Citizenship), we find nothing sug- 
gesting any consideration whatever of children's interests. 
Although it is customary among progressive teachers of 
geography to arrange their facts around questions or topics 
that appeal to children, there is no indication of any such 
tendency here. Nor is any such tendency manifested else- 
where in either the curriculum or syllabus for geography. 
The point of view is completely that of the adult, the ques- 



Application of Standards 131 

tion being, What geographical facts will some day be 
needed, no matter how unrelated to the learner they may 
be now? 

Provision for encouragement of initiative of either 
teacher or pupil by directing attention to the broader aims 
and principles of instruction, such as the causal idea, that 
give the key to method ; or by proposing different sequences 
that require choice; or by urging the importance of ap- 
proaching each topic as nearly as possible from the point 
of view of the particular children at hand, is just as strik- 
ingly lacking. Even proposals for the variation of home 
geography according to variations in environment are 
almost totally wanting. On the other hand, fixed sequence 
and uniformity of approach for all children seem to be 
the things desired. As evidence of this statement, observe 
the suggested plan of study, as follows : 

" In studying the continents, as wholes, attention should 
be directed to their comparative sizes (North America be- 
ing taken as the unit), relative positions, their general con- 
tour, their great mountain systems, their great rivers, their 
large seas, gulfs, and bays, and their important neighboring 
islands. Then should follow the main political divisions 
and the positions of important cities. 

" In studying a country the following series of topics, as 
far as they may be applicable to the country under con- 
sideration and in the grade in which the lesson may be 
given, is suggested: 

" 1. Location as determined by latitude and longitude, 
and with relation to surrounding countries and 
waters. 

" 2. Comparative size and shape. 

" 3. Mountain systems and important ranges ; slopes 
and plains. 

" 4. River systems and important rivers. 

" 5. Important cities, their location and their compara- 
tive population. 



132 Standards for Instruction 

"6. Climate, industries, products, and areas of pro- 
duction. 

" 7. Form of government and general condition of the 
people as to education and ways of living. 

" 8. Exports and imports ; trade, particularly with the 
United States." 

This is a plan of study proposed for all grades. In study- 
ing Holland many a teacher would prefer to begin with its 
most striking features; namely, the position of much of its 
land below water level, which would perhaps come under 
the third point here. 

In studying Brazil many a teacher would prefer to begin 
with the fact that much of our coffee is imported from that 
country, and then trace the reasons for so much coffee pro- 
duction there. That would turn this proposed sequence 
topsy-turvy. In teaching Japan many a teacher would like 
at the start to raise the question how it happened that that 
little country was able, in the recent war, to defeat the 
Russians so completely. In searching out the geographical 
reasons for this victory, the suggested plan would again be 
completely upset. Any one must admit that any single se- 
quence, no matter how good, if always followed, would be 
likely to make the instruction formal. 

The reply to these criticisms may be made that the pro- 
posed plan of study is suggested, and that teachers are en- 
tirely free to follow any other order desired. But while 
there are probably many teachers who assert this freedom, 
we are convinced that the majority of teachers regard this 
sequence as practically obligatory. We have talked with a 
large number who have expressed this conviction. We have 
been much impressed, also, with the emphasis placed upon 
this sequence in the syllabus. For example, we have found 
in the syllabus for Grade 5A, under the heading " North 
America," the direction that " This continent and its coun- 
tries should be studied in accordance with the plan presented 
in the Introductory Note " (that is the plan quoted above). 



Application of Standards 133 

Again, even on the same page, after a list of seventeen 
states of the United States is given to be studied, the direc- 
tion is added, " Each state should be studied as far as 
practicable in accordance with the plan suggested for the 
study of a country." In 6A, further, we find the direction, 
" The countries assigned to this grade should be studied in 
accordance with the plan presented in the Introductory 
Note." We find the same thing repeated again in 6B; 
again in 7A; and finally in 7B. This must at least be a 
very earnest suggestion when so much space out of only 
twelve pages in all is given to it. 

While there is not a thing in the syllabus urging teachers 
to forsake uniformity for individual ways of treating topics, 
there is another paragraph in the Introductory Note show- 
ing an unqualified devotion to uniformity. It reads as 
follows : 

" Most of the work in geography should be done in the 
class room. Very little if any study at home is necessary. 
The lesson should generally begin with a study of a globe 
or a map. This should be followed or accompanied by the 
reading of pertinent selections from the text-book or sup- 
plementary reader. The selections should be read aloud in 
class, and pupils should be expected to answer questions 
after a single reading. Then some time should be spent in 
copying the map roughly from the book or from the wall, 
indicating such phases of the subject as have been studied. 
The next lesson should consist largely in questioning the 
pupils with the map before them and in requiring them to 
make rapid sketches of maps from memory. This exercise 
is the best method of fixing geographical knowledge and 
of showing the pupil how accurate or inaccurate his knowl- 
edge is. It is, moreover, the easiest way to teach much of 
this subject, as well as the easiest way to test the definite- 
ness with which the subject has been learned." 

Certainly uniformity is at a premium when any educa- 
tional authority will attempt to state how several thousand 
teachers of geography, ranging from the fourth through 



134 Standards for Instruction 



the eighth grade, should " generally begin " a lesson, and 
what they should do " then," and " then." 

So far as the syllabus itself is concerned, therefore, it 
seems fair to say that it interprets the term " suggested " 
above referred to as a mere euphemism for " required." 

Further proof of this interpretation is found in the fact 
that in at least some of the schools the district superin- 
tendent, in his rapid examination of children in geography, 
is accustomed to have a large card bearing this list of eight 
points hung up before the class. Then, in the review of 
any country, the children follow this order of topics, speak- 
ing rapidly. One teacher, who revolted at this plan, fol- 
lowed a different order, of her own, and placed it upon a 
large card. In order to satisfy her district superintendent, 
however, in case he should appear, she placed on the other 
side of the same card the outline that she knew he might 
want. On appearing one day he called for the " chart," and, 
by mistake, the wrong side was exposed to view without his 
observing the fact. When the children had begun to recite 
from it, however, he looked up with surprise, and, seeing 
the unexpected substitute, he expressed his disapproval in 
unqualified terms. He had charge of approximately 800 
teachers, and it was his duty to give each one a rating that 
was a prominent factor in determining promotion and 
salary. 

Care in Organization of Subject-matter 

There is a tendency in all studying to drop down to the 
single, isolated fact as the sole unit of progress, and thus to 
abandon all thought of organization. In order to counteract 
this tendency it is one of the special duties of the curriculum 
to present its subject-matter grouped into large wholes 
having closely associated parts; in that way it can exert a 
marked influence on class-room procedure. 

The extent to which care in this direction has been exer- 
cised in this case is indicated in the plan of work for Grade 
4B, quoted on page 129. We find there six continents to 



Application of Standards 135 

be located; five oceans; nine seas; seven gulfs and bays; 
seven mountain systems; fifteen rivers; sixteen countries; 
and eighteen cities — eighty-three in all, and each one 
named. And this composes most of the work in geography 
proper for that half-year. More isolated facts could 
scarcely be proposed for a curriculum. In the course for 
Grade 5 A the part requiring most time is the following: 

" United States. States : Massachusetts, New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, District of Co- 
lumbia, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, Illi- 
nois, Ohio, Minnesota, Colorado, California, Washington. 
Each state should be studied as far as practicable in ac- 
cordance with the plan suggested for the study of a 
country." 

In thus directly recommending and even urging the study 
of the United States by topics so small as individual states, 
the syllabus stands for a lack of organization that has long 
caused groaning in this city by both teachers and pupils. 

But, in addition, look at the much emphasized outline of 
eight topics quoted on page 131, which " should be followed 
as far as possible " in the study both of these states and of 
all countries. No. 1, location, is unrelated to No. 2, size 
and shape. No. 2 is unrelated to No. 3, mountain systems, 
slopes, etc., except in rare instances. No. 5, important cities, 
here precedes No. 6, on climate, industries, and products, 
although causally it follows those topics; and No. 8, on 
imports and exports, is a direct consequence of No. 6, 
although form of government, as the seventh point, is 
allowed to break this connection. One cannot help wonder- 
ing wherein lies the superior virtue of this arrangement of 
topics. No person can be expected, on reading them over 
once or twice, to reproduce them in order through apprecia- 
tion of their interdependence. They are a list rather than a 
series, although called a series in the syllabus. 

Criticism of this list has already been offered on the 
ground that insistence upon any one fixed order seriously 
interfered with the exercise of initiative of both teacher and 



136 Standards for Instruction 

pupil. Now, however, the criticism is offered that this order 
itself shows a lack of appreciation of organization, and in- 
sistence upon it leads directly away from organization, 
rather than toward it. If the syllabus had merely listed 
these topics as the ones usually most valuable ; had forcibly 
urged the importance of close association of facts ; and had 
given a few examples showing how association must be 
secured differently in different countries, then poor teachers 
in all the grades might at least have felt their freedom, and 
their results would have been as good, if not better, than 
now ; while the good teachers, conscious both of their free- 
dom and of what good sequence is, would have far sur- 
passed present results. 

If, after considering these facts, one turns to the course 
for Grade 4A and sees that Home Geography, Local His- 
tory, Good Citizenship, and The Earth are offered as main 
topics without the slightest attempt to interrelate them; if 
one turns to the eighth year and finds Physical Geography 
in the main separated from Commercial Geography; and 
if one then discovers no plan for close correlation between 
the geography and history, one cannot easily avoid the con- 
clusion that organization of subject-matter has, somehow, 
been overlooked in the curriculum in geography. 

Attention to Relative Values 

As previously stated, every study contains a lot of minor, 
more or less formal, facts, such as dates in history and 
individual words in reading, and another lot of more funda- 
mental ideas which in a way carry the others and constitute 
the life of the subject. The proper emphasis of the latter, 
and consequent subordination of the former to them, are 
matters requiring much attention to relative values. 

The history of geography reveals these two kinds of sub- 
ject-matter very strikingly. Thirty years ago geography 
was eminently the " science of location." Countries were 
bounded, mountain systems and rivers were traced, and 



Application of Standards 137 

cities were located, without limit. Maps and map drawing 
were resorted to in almost every recitation as one means of 
reviewing and fixing position, and drills on such facts were 
as prominent as drills in spelling. The highest aim was the. 
vivid picturing of a portion of the earth's surface, or, better, 
of maps; and as everything was conceived of as in a fixed 
status, " static geography " was the only kind known. 

Since that time the fact that the whole earth's surface 
has, in accordance with great laws of nature, undergone and 
is still undergoing endless change has worked its way down 
to elementary school geography and revolutionized that sub- 
ject. The fundamental idea of the subject at the present 
time is that of force, and on that account geography is now 
said to be " dynamic/' The tracing of the influence of 
natural forces upon the earth's surface as it is related to 
man, has made causation the most prominent idea in every 
good course of study, and has led the principles of geog- 
raphy to be regarded as the real substance of the subject. 
This great change is manifest even in home geography, for 
children in very many schools now begin the subject by 
learning how soil is formed, how hills, mountains, and 
valleys are made and destroyed, how water is carried by 
the winds, etc. 

The location of places is not omitted; in fact, children 
after leaving school can now probably locate important 
places more successfully than formerly. But location has 
been approached much as a new word in literature, i. e., in 
the midst of a context that is worth while; and it has been 
reviewed, so as to be remembered, by abundant associations 
in chains of thought, touching industry, commerce, and 
natural law, that have real substance. 

What conception of geography does this curriculum seem 
to stand for ? Is it a static or a dynamic one ? For a sug- 
gestion as to the answer turn to the latter part of the 
Introductory Note quoted on page 133. We read there 
that " Very little or any study at home is necessary." That 
seems somewhat surprising, if geography is a subject with 



138 Standards for Instruction 

a real content, comparable to that in history or literature. 
But further on we find rapid sketching from memory 
recommended, with the statement, " This exercise is the 
best method of fixing geographical knowledge. ... It is, 
moreover, the easiest way to teach much of this subject. 
. . ." One wonders " How much? " And when, in these 
four pages of introductory notes, we find not a single 
reference to the need of subordinating the more formal 
facts to the others, a suspicion is awakened that there are 
no others and that the whole point of view is static. 

Now turn to the course itself to see. The old-style bound- 
ing of countries and states is fortunately eliminated by the 
suggestion in Grade 7 A, " Pupils will be expected to locate 
any state by reference to a neighboring state or to some 
physical feature, such as a body of water or a range of 
mountains." 

But if we examine the home geography in Grade 4 A, we 
find map-drawing to be the beginning topic, and location 
of points in New York City to constitute most of the other 
work that is strictly geographical. In the course in nature 
study for Grades 3 and 4 there are also some geographical 
topics, but they, too, are remarkably formal when compared 
with what is now done in home geography in many places. 
It would be hard to imagine a course more formal than 
that for Grade 4B. In the other grades the great emphasis 
on location, the omission of direct reference to the impor- 
tance of causation, the insistence that the same formal out- 
line be followed alike in the study of all countries and 
states, and the delay of all reference to physical geography 
— which must usually be the starting point in the causal 
chain — until the eighth year of school, when geography 
is an optional subject, if a foreign language is taken — all 
these facts together make this curriculum static and dead. 

This course, as found in print, shows as a whole almost 
no influence from the educational thought in the United 
States during the last twenty-five years; and its character 
is a direct hindrance to good teaching of geography. 



Application of Standards 139 

The regular amount of time allotted for this course is 
twenty-seven minutes per day in Grade 4; twenty-four 
minutes per day in Grades 5 and 6 ; and three forty-minute 
periods per week in Grade 7. It is possible that an average 
teacher might do the exact amount of work prescribed, in 
the way prescribed, within this time; but if any teacher 
attempted to add enough subject-matter to give life to the 
formal work, the time would prove utterly inadequate. 



PHYSICAL TRAINING 

Character of the Curriculum 

The following paragraph is taken from the Introductory 
Note for the curriculum in physical training : 

" Gymnastic exercise should conserve organic vigor, lead 
to correct posture, and train to quick and definite action. 
It should be based upon muscular coordinations, and should 
make a progressive demand upon muscular effort, com- 
plexity of movement, and power of heart and lungs. All 
available means of arousing and maintaining interest, such 
as the use of apparatus and a change from class-room sur- 
roundings, should be employed." 

In accordance with this paragraph, the lessons in physical 
training consist of freehand and light apparatus exercises, 
and games. Each year's work is arranged in series of les- 
sons, each lesson to be given for a stated number of periods. 
In the lower grades this work takes place in the class room. 
In the upper grades, where light apparatus is used, the 
pupils frequently exercise in the gymnasiums, courts, or 
yards. 

In the first three grades emphasis is placed upon march- 
ing, with drill in obeying commands. The children are 
urged to pause between the two parts of each command, 
and always to wait for the executive command. 

In the arm stretchings and hand placings, " voluntary and 
isolated control of the arm as a whole " is sought. These 



140 Standards for Instruction 

exercises are followed by skipping, stretching, and breathing 
exercises. " In all respiratory exercises the children should 
be urged to a forced respiration. Exaggerated lifting of the 
shoulders should be avoided." Leg bending, rising on toes, 
trunk bending, arm circling, hand clapping, and point steps 
follow in order. The lessons usually conclude with a trunk- 
bending exercise. 

The following is a typical lesson : 

Grade i — First Half-year. Lesson VI 

i. Stretching. 

2. Marching and skipping. Arms folded behind — 

Place! 

3. Breathing — Begin. Three times. Hands on hips 

— Place ! 

4. Hand on shoulder, right — One ! 8 — 8 — 8. 

5. Arm stretching sideways, right — One ! 8 — 8 — 8. 

6. Rising on toes — One ! 8. 

7. Bending leg upward, right — One! 8 or 16. Hands 

on hips — Place ! 

8. Trunk bending sideways, right — One ! 8 — 8. 

Of the five lessons per week, the syllabus requires that 
at least three be given to gymnastic work. " Not more than 
two days per week (thirty minutes) may be devoted to the 
games, training for the button test, class athletics, or folk 
dancing named at the end of the syllabus." This quotation 
from the general introduction to the course of study indi- 
cates the emphasis placed upon formal gymnastics. The 
tendency is to minimize the work in games and to make 
the physical training primarily gymnastic drill. 

In more than twenty classes observed only those above 
the sixth grade were taken to the gymnasium for physical 
training. The result of a questionnaire given to 207 girls 
who, less than a year ago, completed the elementary school 
course in 53 different schools in New York City shows the 
following : 



Application of Standards 141 

Those having had no games in school 32 

Those having had games out of doors 24 

Those having had games out of doors sometimes .... 15 

Those having had games in class room and gymnasium 131 

Miscellaneous answers 5 

Of the 131 girls who played games in class room and 
gymnasium, 85 had this work only after they entered the 
seventh and eighth grades. 

Of the 207 girls questioned, 151 had had physical train- 
ing every day ; 47 had had it two, three, or four times each 
week; the other nine had had two-minute drills after each 
lesson. Remembering that there are only five periods per 
week given to this entire subject, we get here rather definite 
information as to the prominence of the games. 

In many schools there are no facilities for running, folk 
dancing, and athletics. Teachers are not trained to do this 
kind of work and have little interest in it. It takes time 
for forty children to pass from a fourth-floor class room 
to a basement gymnasium or court. Teachers have not the 
time, strength, or desire to do this extra work; hence the 
time planned for games and dancing is very often devoted 
to gymnastics in the class room. 

In many buildings, too, the courts or gymnasiums are 
dark, poorly ventilated, and generally unattractive and un- 
hygienic. Teachers feel that gymnastic exercise given in 
the class room is a legitimate substitute. 

Teachers explain also that during the games children 
become noisy and unmanageable. It takes time to get them 
settled down to work again and entirely under control. 

Provision for Motive 

It is plain from all this that the curriculum in physical 
training is composed chiefly of gymnastics, planned from 
the adult viewpoint exclusively, like the course in arithmetic 
(page 113). The needs of the child, to be sure, form the 
basis for the plan, but not those that he is himself actively 
interested in. Unless he is greatly concerned about his 



142 Standards for Instruction 

health in general — and he would be in an unhealthy state 
of mind if he were — and unless, also, he is able to appre- 
ciate the importance of correct posture and muscular co- 
ordination, most of this curriculum must seem to him me- 
chanical, unnatural, and lifeless. 

Interest, according to the Introductory Note quoted at 
the beginning, is declared to be desirable, but it is simply 
as a means of carrying the pupil through the movements, 
and not as an important end in itself; and there is little 
attempt to choose subject-matter in the field that can arouse 
interest, as literature arouses it. In other words, while 
modern educational theory requires that the formal ele- 
ments in beginning reading, geography, history, and many 
other subjects be subordinated to others that are stimulat- 
ing, and while the best modern practise in these fields centers 
in this effort, that entire conception is in the main ignored 
in this physical training. 

We are convinced that the pupil's attitude toward the sub- 
ject is as important in this field as in any other; indeed, 
probably more important, since health is so much involved. 
Physical training should develop an interest in play, a 
knowledge of games, and a skill in them, that will perma- 
nently identify one with healthy sport, just as literature 
should develop a permanent taste for reading, and nature 
study a permanent enjoyment of plants and animals. 

This being accepted, a curriculum in physical training 
should be selected with reference to the pupil's interest, just 
as in the case of these other subjects. That means no 
abandonment of the health aims that seem to the adult 
desirable. In fact, they can be gained as well, or better, 
through exercises that are natural, spontaneous, and enjoy- 
able. Movements performed on the gymnasium floor or in 
the playground can involve the same principles and elements 
as those belonging to class room, laboratory, and studio, 
while their richer content will make them much more effec- 
tive with the child. But this plan does mean the subordina- 
tion of the adult's view to things that seem worth while to 



Application of Standards 143 

the pupil. He should run in proper form, or keep the body 
erect and hold his bow and arrow in a prescribed way, not 
because he wants to have a flat back and high chest — the 
adult's objects — but because he knows that these positions 
bring results, and he wants to win the race or prove his 
skill as a marksman. 

So he should bend the arms and legs, and develop other 
portions of the body, by climbing, running, dancing, and 
by performing other activities that, by their long popularity, 
have become classic. The absence of even a tendency 
toward this conception of physical training seems to us a 
reason for condemning this plan of instruction, so far as 
provision for motive is concerned. 

Initiative in Teachers and Pupils 

Considering again the typical lesson given, one asks, 
What is there here that allows the initiative of a six-year- 
old child? What interest has he in breathing exercises, 
especially when he is urged to hold the chest high, to lower 
the shoulders, to inhale through the nostrils, and to exhale 
through the mouth ? Why should he be interested in bend- 
ing his arms in a definite way for a stated number of times 
and to the teacher's count? The marching and skipping 
exercises are suggestive of more freedom, but unfortunately 
they cause too much noise, confusion, and dust, and are 
therefore generally omitted. But when they are given the 
children are held down to the dull monotony of the teacher's 
count, sometimes varied by the tap of the ruler, the clap- 
ping of hands, or the snapping of the fingers. The children 
must march in attempted military form, with weight on 
toes, chin in, chest high, hips back, and the steps must be 
carefully numbered and regulated in order to bring each 
child to his place by his desk at a given time. There is little 
provision for initiative here. In that respect such exercises 
contrast strikingly with physical training in which the 
pupils express an interesting idea or emotion by dancing, 
pantomime, or other dramatic representation ; or in which 



144 Standards for Instruction 

the muscular effort put forth aims at some definite effect, as 
in the maintenance of squad formation in marching, in hit- 
ting a ball, throwing a ball into a basket, swimming to a 
given point, outrunning a competitor, or in any one of the 
infinite number of things to do in games. 

And note the freedom granted to the teacher : 
" The gymnastic exercises are arranged in programs or 
lessons. Each lesson is intended to be given entire every 
day for two weeks." 

If this plan is carried out there is little time left for 
games and dancing, except in the recess period, which 
many teachers disregard. And remembering that each les- 
son is to be given in entirety each day for two weeks ; that 
the teacher is expected to adhere strictly to the order in 
which the lessons are arranged; and that the work must 
stand the criticism of the supervisor, who judges the teach- 
er's success by the children's ability to do the prescribed 
work; it appears that the teacher has as little opportunity 
for originality, choice, and initiative as the child. 

Organization of Subject-matter 

Does the subject-matter suggest a field of scattered ideas 
and isolated facts, or is it grouped in large wholes con- 
sisting of closely related facts? 

This standard of criticism is more difficult to apply to 
physical education. It is more easily applied to those sub- 
jects in which the course of study deals directly with ideas 
than to a subject dealing with motor activity through which 
ideas are expressed. If the lessons for each grade consist 
of skeleton outlines lacking in suggestion, barren of inter- 
esting material, and intended only to attain certain physical 
results, then the necessity for organization of material is 
slight, save as certain exercises are selected and progres- 
sively arranged to provide for nutritive stimulation, pos- 
tural correction, and psychological control. If, on the con- 
trary, the work in physical education is considered as a 
part of the natural, present life of the child; if it offers 



Application of Standards 145 

material through which the child can live out freely and 
joyously the things in which he finds present interest, then 
the course of study can no longer be an outline of cold, 
unrelated, trunk-bending, arm-stretching, and breathing ex- 
ercises, but it will suggest material correlated with many 
home and school activities and interests, in the enjoyment 
of which children will bend their knees, stretch their arms, 
and breathe naturally. 

The following quotation from the introduction to 
" School Gymnastics " gives a general idea of the prin- 
ciples upon which the arrangement of lessons and exercises 
is based: 

" The order in which the exercises are arranged follows 
a general plan, which gives all-over exercise in each lesson 
without overfatiguing one part. The lessons all begin with 
a preliminary stretching of the arms upward and sideways, 
to assist the body to a good standing posture from which 
to take the exercises that follow, and with a drill in march- 
ing, facing, and running which secures general attention 
from the class and gives opportunity for ventilation. A 
breathing exercise is taken, and is followed by the regular 
table of exercises. This table begins with work for the 
extremities — the arms and legs — to increase the flow of 
the circulation away from the central part of the body. 
The central part of the table contains jumping exercises 
which, like the running, produce maximal effects upon the 
circulation and respiration. The table closes with trunk 
exercises, which, in their use of large muscular groups, 
again approach maximal effects, though not such as to 
embarrass the respiration as do running and jumping. The 
progression of the exercises and their grading for children 
of different ages are governed both by their physiological 
and mechanical difficulty and by the child's ability to isolate 
or coordinate muscular movement." 

Here is clearly indicated the emphasis placed upon physio- 
logical and mechanical processes. 

It is the coldly logical and scientific attitude that is in 



146 Standards for Instruction 

control, rather than the pedagogical, and it has the same 
general effect that arrangement of subject-matter from the 
standpoint of pure science in any field has upon children. 
In this case it trains the body too exclusively, without 
sufficient regard for the attitude of the mind and for the 
indirect effects of exercise upon disposition and person- 
ality; and it develops various forms of ability which are, 
not, in identity, similarity, or analogy, closely enough re-J 
lated to the interests and activities of human life to justify 
the time and effort given to them. When physical education 
presents a program which is psychologically and physio- 
logically sound, and therefore pedagogically acceptable, 
it will find itself in organic relationship with modern 
educational thought to a degree hardly hinted at in this 
arrangement. 

Attention to Relative Values 

Do fundamentals receive proper emphasis, and are the 
more formal and less important parts subordinated to the 
vital and more real ones? 

A study of the syllabi in physical training convinces one 
that much thought has been given to the progression, ar- 
rangement, and combination of exercises. The matter of 
proper arrangement and emphasis depends upon the view- 
point. It is stated that postural correction has governed 
mainly both the selection and combination of exercises. 
If postural correction is the most important end to be 
gained in physical training, and if this can be obtained 
through artificial and mechanical means, no doubt the ar- 
rangement here suggested is not to be questioned. If, 
however, instead of being considered the end in physical 
training, posture becomes a definite, needed, and much de- 
sired means to the attainment of certain interesting ends, 
far broader and farther reaching, the emphasis is shifted. 
Then the mechanical forces appear no longer either in the 
lead, or in isolation. Connected naturally with the activities 
in which he is interested, these more formal elements give 



Application of Standards 147 

up much of their formality in favor of the active, developing 
child and fall naturally into place as means by which he is 
able to do the things in which he takes present delight and 
satisfaction. 

Applying this standard, we find that the course of study 
shows marked emphasis upon posture and coordination. 
The lessons and exercises seem planned to bring about 
these results, and all other aims are relatively subordinated. 
According to the aims of physical training as stated in the 
introduction to the course of study, this course of procedure 
seems logical ; but measured by broader psychological values 
and principles, these ends become of secondary importance 
and the course of study appears mechanical and illogical. 
It is lacking in proper emphasis of the more vital and real 
elements in physical education. 

Summary 

In weighing this course of study we have assumed that 
a good course in physical training should be judged by 
the same general standards as a curriculum in any other 
subject; that is, we have assumed that its worth lies first 
of all in its appeal to the mind and feeling of the pupil. In 
order to make this appeal it cannot be composed merely of 
a list of movements, although it may include movements; 
but it must have a content comparable in richness with that 
of literature, or music, or industrial art, or nature study; 
and through this rich content it must affect the leading 
habits of the pupil within its realm, just as each of these 
other subjects is expected to affect leading habits within its 
field. In brief, it is responsible for influencing the child's 
tastes and purposes, with reference to physical exercise and 
sport; his habit of attending to relative values in this field; 
his tendency to organize his experience along this line ; and 
his self-reliance in executing plans for taking exercise and 
playing games. 

Judged by this standard this course and syllabus are 
quite unsatisfactory. 



148 Standards for Instruction 

HYGIENE 

Quotations Showing the Character of the Curriculum 

In the course of study, physical training and hygiene are 
considered together. Since, however, according to the 
scheme of work outlined in the syllabi, there appears no 
close relationship between the two, it has seemed permis- 
sible to discuss them under separate headings. The follow- 
ing quotation from the Introductory Note in the course of 
study for physical training and hygiene suggests the scope 
and character of the instruction in the latter subject: 

" The teacher should aim to lead pupils to cultivate habits 
of cleanliness; to care for health, eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, 
and nose; to give attention to food and clothing, ventila- 
tion, rest, sleep, and play ; to maintain good position while 
standing, sitting, writing, sleeping, and walking. The im- 
portant facts with reference to growth, structure, and care 
of the body, and the conditions under which it works most 
effectively, should be taught in a progressive way, so that 
one specific topic may be made prominent each year. As 
required by law, physiology and hygiene are to be studied 
with reference to the effects of alcohol, tobacco, and other 
narcotics on the human system." 

More detailed directions, typical of those given for a 
particular grade, are found in the following paragraph, per- 
taining to the 2B grade : 

" Instruction should be given to pupils in regard to the 
most wholesome foods; the importance of regularity of 
eating; growth and nutrition. The lessons should include 
a brief description of the anatomy, composition and care of 
the teeth, and the importance and beauty of good teeth. 

" Effects of alcohol and narcotics. The teacher in pre- 
paratory oral lessons should consult one or more of the 
text-books in physiology and hygiene presented by the 
Board of Education." 

For further discussion of instruction in this subject, see 
discussion of recitation observed, page 52. 



Application of Standards 149 

For Grade 7B the following work is outlined : 
" Pupils should be taught the important facts concerning 
respiration; the anatomy of the lungs and the mechanism 
of breathing; the general structure of the heart, lungs, 
blood vessels, and lymphatics; and the relation of tobacco 
to the growth of the body in size and strength." 

In planning the course the aim has been to make promi- 
nent each year one specific topic. To this end the following 
arrangement has been adopted: 

Grade iA. Cleanliness — Effects of alcohol and nar- 
cotics. 

Grade iB. Cleanliness of different parts of the body. 

Grade 2A. Dietetics — Effects of alcohol and narcotics. 

Grade 2B. Foods. 

Grade 3A. Clothing, play, posture — Effects of alcohol 
and narcotics. 

Grade 3B. Posture, endurance, speed. 

Grade 4A. Pure air, ventilation — Effects of alcohol 
and narcotics. 

Grade 4B. Care, use, and structure of the different parts 
of the body. 

Grade 5A. Emergencies — Effects of alcohol and nar- 
cotics. 

Grade 5B. First aid. 

Grade 6 A. Board of Health — Effects of alcohol and 
narcotics. 

Grade 6B. Contagious disease. 

Grade 7 A. Study of the body — Effects of alcohol and 
narcotics. 

Grade 7B. Anatomy of throat, lungs, etc. 

Grade 8A. Nervous system. 

Grade 8B. Habit formation. 

Attention to Relative Values 

The effects of alcohol and narcotics is the only topic 
taught in every grade. This work is presented through 



150 Standards for Instruction 

the reading of text-books in class. These texts treat for- 
mally the effects of stimulants and narcotics in various 
anatomical and physiological relationships of the distilla- 
tion of alcoholic drinks, and of the sure and horrible effects 
of smoking and drinking. 

In the syllabus the subject of alcohol and narcotics Is 
given a separate and entire paragraph, while the subject of 
cleanliness is referred to directly only in Grades 1 and 7, 
and indirectly in Grades 2 and 4. 

We do not believe that temperance hygiene should be 
disregarded; the criticism is upon the emphasis given to it. 
If the personal and physiological aspects were subordinated, 
and the emphasis placed upon the social, industrial, and 
economic aspects, personal and civic health would be en- 
couraged and abstinence made more likely. 

By the arrangement of the course of study the subject 
of alcohol and narcotics is given first place, and that of 
the anatomy of the different parts of the body is placed 
second in importance. In Grades 2, 4, 7, and 8 decided 
emphasis is given to this subject, while in one grade only 
— the sixth — is reference made to civic health. Respira- 
tion is to be studied in Grades 3, 4, and 7, while the subject 
of the prevention of disease, a matter of prime importance, 
is mentioned in the sixth grade only. 

In many of the schools hygiene is entirely neglected, un- 
less one may consider the " morning inspection " a substitute 
for it. In a few of the buildings old " Temperance 
Primers " are used in the primary grades. In general, 
however, the hygiene that is offered is given above the 
sixth grade. 

If the formation of correct habits be the aim of this 
course, it is reasonable to believe that it should provide 
•health instruction for children before they enter the sixth 
grade. Especially is this true since so many of the foreign 
children leave the public schools as soon as they can obtain 
their working papers — at the conclusion of the 5B grade. 

The conviction that most of the instruction in hygiene 



Application of Standards 



151 



resolves itself into the teaching of physiology, anatomy, 
and alcohol and narcotics, that this instruction is given 
mainly in the upper grades, and that it is left largely to 
the discretion of the individual teacher, is substantiated by 
visits to many schools and by personal talks with supervisors, 
principals, and teachers. It is verified also in a very inter- 
esting although perhaps less reliable way by a question- 
naire to which answers were received from 200 recent pub- 
lic school pupils, representing more than forty different 
schools in the city. 

Of these pupils, 138 stated that they had had hygiene 
during their elementary school course; seventeen said they 
had had physiology; twelve had had no work of this 
kind ; and about thirty had had " very little." At first 
sight this result seems encouraging, since it indicates a 
decided emphasis upon health instruction. When, however, 
these pupils were questioned regarding the topics studied, 
the result showed quite a different emphasis, and indicated 
that anatomy, physiology, alcohol, and narcotics are being 
taught in the schools under the name of " hygiene," so 
that pupils are leaving the public schools ignorant of the 
true meaning and significance of health instruction. The 
result of the questionnaire shows that the hygiene in the 
more than forty schools included the following topics : 

pupils 



Structure of the lungs mentioned by about 90 per cent of the 


Structure of the heart 


f tt tt 


87 " 


t it 


Fresh air 


i tt (l 


80 


1 a 


Structure of the skin 


'< tt a 


75 


t a 


Bones 


t a it 


75 


t a 


Care of the hair 


( a a 


70 


1 tt 


Alcohol and narcotics 


t a tt 


70 


t a 


Stomach ' 


( tt a 


68 


1 a 


How and when to bathe 


t it tt 


50 


t tt 


Civic League ' 


e a it 


20 " 


e ft 


Department of Health ' 


t a a 


15 


t tt 


How to care for your bed 


( u a 


12 " 


t it 



The fact that the subject of fresh air was mentioned by 
about 80 per cent of these pupils may be due to the influence 



152 Standards for Instruction 

of the little book on Tuberculosis which has been placed in 
the hands of teachers by the Board of Health. Invariably 
in schools in which this book has been used the pupils men- 
tioned fresh air as a topic discussed. 

That about 70 per cent mentioned the care of the hair 
as a subject discussed is suggestive of the influence of the 
school nurse and of the so-called " morning inspection." 
It is significant, also, that the organization of civic leagues 
is reflecting a helpful influence upon the hygiene in the 
schools. 

When it is noted that the number of those mentioning 
the Department of Health falls to 15 per cent, and that 
only 12 per cent had been told how to care for their beds, 
while about 90 per cent had been taught the structure of 
the heart, the overemphasis on mere anatomy is strongly 
suggested. From given lists these pupils were asked to 
select those topics which were most frequently discussed in 
their hygiene work. The following results were obtained : 

Structure of the lungs mentioned by about 90 per cent of the pupils 



Structure of the heart 


« 


" 86 


Stomach 


a 


" 70 


Alcohol and narcotics 


(( 


" 50 


(including how alcohol 






is made) 






Department of Health 


it 


" 10 


Prevention of sickness 


a 


" 2 



These results, corresponding in general with those before 
noted, give added evidence of the emphasis on anatomy 
and physiology and of the disregard for hygiene. 

Considering the relative importance of these things in 
life, serious error, we think, has been committed here. 
Undue emphasis has been placed on the more formal and 
less valuable parts, while the more vital topics have been 
subordinated. And not only are the wrong topics empha- 
sized, but the worth of knowledge is overestimated. The 
tendency now is to value mere information in this field 



Application of Standards 153 

less, and to esteem more highly useful reactions and habits ; 
but there is little manifestation of that tendency in this 
plan. 

Organisation of Subject-matter 

This subject might have been organized around the pupil's 
own interests, but there is far too much that is purely ana- 
tomical and physiological to permit that arrangement. Or 
it might have been correlated, in important parts, with the 
physical training; but there is no evidence of serious at- 
tempts in that direction. Or it might have been intimately 
correlated with nature study, so that the pupil's interest 
might have been greatly increased and he might have been 
relieved of the danger of a disturbed self-consciousness by 
approaching the structure and function of his own body 
through the study of plants and animals; but this possi- 
bility, also, has been overlooked. In fact, there is little 
organization here; the course is principally a list of topics 
that, supposedly, a child ought to know. This criticism is 
not given, however, without appreciation of the fact that 
under a few of the subjects emphasized in the course there 
are suggested helpful, interrelated topics which, if valued 
and intelligently utilized by the teacher, might result in 
making the work in hygiene of much worth. 

The fact should be borne in mind, also, that the law in 
regard to temperance instruction makes it difficult to plan 
a well-organized course. 

Provisions for Motive and Initiative 

Enough facts have, perhaps, already been presented to 
show that little provision has been made in this course 
either for the motives of children or for the exercise of 
individuality of children or teachers. 

Yet of all subjects hygiene needs most to be related to 
a child's own interests and purposes, since it should affect 
his conduct directly. The truths that it offers should be 
a mere means by which habits may be established. But the 



1 54 Standards for Instruction 

instruction as here planned appears largely indifferent to 
any result beyond information. It is a bald presentation 
of facts, without that setting which makes one reflective in 
regard to them until they become parts of habitual trains of 
thought. 

For example, as an abstract subject, food is most unin- 
teresting, especially when the emphasis is placed upon nu- 
trition; but in the cooking room, where the child has the 
opportunity of seeing the food in process of preparation, 
and takes an active part in its preparation, the subject of 
food becomes of present interest. With such an approach, 
hygienic principles may be discussed, and hygienic habits 
inculcated through the use of material directly related to 
the child's present interests and activities. 

So almost any one of these topics can be made influential 
on conduct when approached in a skilful manner. But such 
approach is by no means a matter of method alone. It de- 
pends nearly as much upon skill in selection and arrange- 
ment of subject-matter as upon skill in presentation. One 
of the discouraging facts about this curriculum is that the 
task has seemed too easy. At least the manner of per- 
forming it reveals no deep appreciation of the degree of 
skill required to do it well. 



CHAPTER X 

CONCLUSIONS AS TO QUALITY OF CURRICU- 
LUM AND SYLLABI OF THE KINDER- 
GARTEN AND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

I. THE KINDERGARTEN 

THE want, at present, of a printed curriculum and 
syllabus that are actually followed in the kindergarten 
has made it impossible to discuss these subjects in detail as 
related to the kindergarten. But the curriculum followed, 
as seen on visits to various kindergartens, indicates that 
with partial exceptions the plan of study for that age of 
children is in substantial harmony with the standards set 
up. That curriculum, therefore, is a direct aid toward 
securing the kind of instruction that is desired. 

2. THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

Source of Data for Conclusions 

The data on which the following conclusions are based 
are principally the printed statements in the curriculum and 
syllabi. For a few subjects such printed matter is not at 
hand, or is partly out of date. The significance of occa- 
sional statements also has had to be determined by seeing 
how they were interpreted in practise. On these accounts 
we have occasionally gone beyond this source; but this 
printed matter, taken as it stands, reveals a very important 
plan of work, and it is mainly this published plan that fur- 
nishes the data for the following conclusions: 

i55 



156 Standards for Instruction 

Provisions for Motive 

In order that instruction may affect the hopes and pur- 
poses of pupils, the subject-matter must be intimately re- 
lated to human interests and to the interests of the children 
in particular. It is difficult to attain this ideal; but every 
good curriculum shows efforts in this direction, with at 
least partial success here and there. 

To what extent does the curriculum here discussed meet 
this requirement? It is necessarily met to a large degree 
in literature, for classic literature is called classic partly 
because it deals only with vital human problems. The 
course in cooking, also, largely meets this responsibility. 

Outside of these two subjects the requirement is met in 
only a slight degree. There is no attempt, for example, to 
organize the subject-matter of geography about human 
problems. Nature study and elementary science do no bet- 
ter ; both are approached from an encyclopedic and scientific 
point of view entirely. The grammar likewise shows the 
scientific standpoint only. The English history has almost 
no connection with present life. And the subjects of music, 
composition, sewing, drawing, shop work, physical educa- 
tion, and arithmetic place the emphasis plainly on technical 
efficiency. The courses are, in general, baldly abstract ; and 
if they appeal to young people, it is due rather to accident 
than to any skilful provision for motive on the part of those 
who selected their subject-matter. 

The seriousness of this neglect of motive for particular 
children is seen, for example, in the course for the seventh 
school year. That is a year in which the subject-matter 
should make a special appeal to the pupils, because great 
numbers of them now withdraw from school at the end of 
the sixth year or during the seventh. Yet we find the 
following subjects in the course: Constructive and inven- 
tional exercises that have little purpose, as a prominent part 
of arithmetic; constructive drawing unrelated to actual 
construction; shop work in which a series of models has 



Conclusions as to Curriculum and Syllabi 157 

to be followed; elementary science patterned after college 
work and taught as a science; an outline of the entire 
history of England; and grammar taught as a science. 
One naturally suspects that such a course and truancy are 
closely related. 

Attention to Relative Values — Judgment 

As has been stated above, the only basis for judging the 
value of ideas is found in their relation to mankind ; and, 
not showing an interest in the establishment of such a re- 
lation, the authors of the courses and syllabi may be ex- 
pected to show carelessness in respect to values in their 
selections. And that is what has happened. A more super- 
ficial and static course than that in geography would be 
hard to find. The composition omits some of the most 
important factors in good composition. The arithmetic 
might omit nearly one fourth of its present matter to ad- 
vantage. A few things in English history are needed, but 
only a small portion of that now covered. Neither sewing, 
nor drawing, nor shop work calls attention to the richer 
portion of the subject-matter in its field, technique alone 
being recommended. In brief, motive not being considered, 
many topics that have little worth are included and many 
others that are a very source of life are omitted. 

Attention to Organization — Imagination and Reasoning 

Organization has to do with the association of ideas. 
The indifference with which this association is treated is 
indicated by the neglect of correlation of studies with one 
another. There is practically no attempt to correlate his- 
tory and geography; or history and civics; or geography 
and nature study; or nature study and hygiene; or litera- 
ture and composition; or arithmetic and shop work; or 
shop work and drawing. 

It can hardly be that the correlation of studies was en- 
tirely overlooked by the authors of the curriculum; it is 



158 Standards for Instruction 

a topic that is too often discussed for that. Little value 
must have been attached to it. 

This attitude indicates that the interrelation of ideas 
within each study will also receive scant attention. That 
is strikingly true of some of them, particularly of geog- 
raphy, history, and nature study. The underlying princi- 
ples, or unifying ideas, of these subjects being largely 
omitted, they fall apart into detached facts, having the 
minimum amount of organization. 

Several other subjects, especially music, shop work, sew- 
ing, arithmetic, and to a great extent elementary science, 
stand for a sequence that is technical or scientific. But 
organization beyond that, securing a careful grouping of 
facts, so that the broader and to the children more signifi- 
cant truths stand out clearly as the unifying ideas — that 
organization is largely wanting. 

Expression of Individuality of Teachers and Pupils 

In a certain school, which has six classes at the same 
point of advancement, exactly the same topics in each study 
are mapped out each week for all the pupils. Thus nearly 
300 children are required to cover the same ground at the 
same rate, week after week. That indicates the prevailing 
attitude toward individuality in the city, an attitude to a 
great extent produced by the curriculum and syllabi. 

Observe, first, what provision these two make for the 
individuality of children. In the composition work, instead 
of cautioning against too much reliance on imitation of 
other writers, imitation is really emphasized as the con- 
trolling idea. There is no warning given against too much 
concert work in music, although that is one of the prevailing 
errors. The sewing and shop work are so planned that dic- 
tation seems to the teachers in those fields to be the one 
necessary method in class. Throughout the curriculum and 
syllabi there is remarkably little reference to any need of 
adapting subject-matter to pupils; and there is almost no 



Conclusions as to Curriculum and Syllabi 159 

reference to the importance of teaching children how to 
study alone, or to the best ways of doing it. 

Consider next the teachers. In nearly every subject — 
at least in literature, history, geography, nature study, ele- 
mentary science, composition, and arithmetic — the syllabus 
attempts to tell how any topic in that field should be 
taught. Instead of urging each teacher to adapt her method 
to individual conditions — including her own — there is 
a direct attempt to reduce the method in each study to a 
formula. 

Of course, such formulae cannot cover all cases and meet 
all needs. They are accordingly supplemented by sugges- 
tions. For instance, in history, throughout the sixth and 
seventh years, " No notes should be dictated by the teacher, 
nor should home study be required of pupils." First, in 
Grade 8A, " in history an earnest study of the text-book 
is recommended." Likewise, in beginning reading in Grade 
1 A, " the use of diacritical marks as a help to reading is 
optional." 

Many of these suggestions are much needed, and prob- 
ably the formulae are often helpful; but it is their source 
that is here of special importance. Ordinarily class-room 
procedure is determined in a broad way by the working 
aims of instruction; in a more detailed way, by the prin- 
ciples of method, as drawn from psychology. But there 
is no attempt here to connect the details of class-room 
method with either the aims or the principles of instruction 
by basing these formulae and suggestions upon them. There 
is usually no reference to aims and principles in the syllabi. 
The result is that these formulae and suggestions find their 
basis in the authority of the Board of Superintendents, who 
issue them. For this reason they seem to the teachers very 
arbitrary — whether they were originally so or not — and 
although called " suggestions " in the syllabi, they have the 
effect of directions or requirements, since they are based 
on the authority of superior officers. 

In remarking that there is usually no reference to aims 



160 Standards for Instruction 

and principles in the syllabi, we do not overlook the fact 
that there is some discussion of these matters. For ex- 
ample, in the Introductory Note for geography, the intel- 
lectual purposes of geography are stated as follows: 

" i. Geography may be made to train the observing 
powers. 

"2. It may be made to train the imagination. 

"3. Rightly taught, geography trains the memory. 

" 4. Geography should also be made, particularly during 
the last three years of the course, to train the reasoning 
powers. When you ask a child to classify the natural 
features of a country — rivers, for example — according 
to some common property, as navigability, or the products 
of a country, as necessaries and luxuries; and still more 
when you ask him to generalize after he has classified, as 
for instance to determine the status of a people after a 
classification of their products, you are training him to 
reason." 

But such statements as these are passed over because 
they are too general to have much influence on practise. 
One reason for reproducing them here is to show how little 
basis, beyond personal authority, the writers of the syllabi 
really had in mind. Incidentally, what is more discourag- 
ing for a teacher who is in close touch with modern edu- 
cational thought than to find a course of study that she 
must follow prefaced by such academic and outworn state- 
ments as these? 

There is another important fact concerning these for- 
mulae and suggestions in the syllabi ; i. e., there is usually 
only one solution offered for the mastery of any one kind 
of difficulty. For example, only one plan is proposed for 
the appreciative reading of a masterpiece of literature, and 
only one order of topics for the teaching of any country 
in geography. Likewise, only one suggestion is usually 
made for solving each class of minor problems. In com- 
position for Grade 3 A, for instance, we find the following: 

" The pupils should construct statements from questions 



Conclusions as to Curriculum and Syllabi 161 

or directions. The teacher and the pupils working to- 
gether should construct paragraphs." 

Of course, there might be several ways of getting pupils 
to construct statements and paragraphs. But apparently 
this method is the best ; otherwise, presumably, others would 
have been suggested. And, by presenting it alone, the bad 
effects of the exercise of bad judgment by the teacher are 
avoided. Thus the teacher throughout all the syllabi is 
generally relieved from the danger involved in the exercise 
of choice. 

We are forced to conclude, then, that the curriculum and 
syllabi not only make no provision for preserving and de- 
veloping the individuality of the children, but that their 
influence tends somewhat in the opposite direction. 

So far as the teachers are concerned the curriculum and 
syllabi are a positive help in the sense that every teacher 
must follow a course of study; there would be chaos in 
any school without one. But beyond that they directly cur- 
tail the teacher's freedom. In their general plan they re- 
fuse to trust the teacher by putting the aims and principles 
of instruction before her, clarified by illustrations, and by 
allowing her to weigh, select, and try. That is a necessary 
condition of growth for the teacher, to be sure ; but growth 
with that risk would, it seems, be too dear. On the con- 
trary, to the greatest extent possible, the teacher is told 
specifically what she shall do. What wonder, then, if the 
average teacher feels that she has little more to do than to 
obey? 

Standards Actually Followed in the Present Curriculum 
and Syllabi 

It is evident that the standards proposed by us for judg- 
ing curriculum and syllabi have been largely ignored. In 
order that the situation may be more fully understood it 
is pertinent to ask, What standards were actually followed ? 

That question brings us back to the working theory 
of the elementary school that was stated to be an im- 



1 62 Standards for Instruction 

portant factor in determining the quality of class-room 
instruction. 

The influence of that theory upon the curriculum and 
syllabi should be noted. The first article — belief in the 
necessity of unlimited uniformity — explains why 650,000 
children, representing all kinds of environment and ability, 
are given substantially the same curriculum, to be covered 
in the same time; why class-room method is reduced as 
far as possible to formulae; why both these formulae and 
the numerous other suggestions are based on personal au- 
thority rather than on the aims and principles of instruc- 
tion; why, in brief, scarcely any attempt has been made 
here to provide for the individuality of either children or 
teachers. 

The second article — the belief that the core of instruc- 
tion consists in those facts and kinds of skill that are au- 
tomatically usable — explains why the underlying princi- 
ples and richer material in many of the subjects, such as 
geography, shop work, and music, have been neglected for 
the more formal portions. 

The third article — the belief that the most desirable 
element in scholarship is accuracy in details — accounts for 
the remarkable lack of organization in the subject-matter. 
Details being, individually, the center of interest, the selec- 
tion and association of details either by correlation of 
studies or by careful grouping of facts within each study 
becomes a negligible matter. The only phase of organiza- 
tion that has received much attention is that of sequence 
within particular studies; but that is confined to a few of 
the studies, and the sequence secured is one for adults 
(logical) rather than one for children (psychological). 

The fourth article — the belief that the content of cur- 
ricula should be selected with reference to the distant future 
— accounts for the want of subject-matter that appeals 
now to children, and therefore that affects their present 
conduct. 

The curriculum and syllabi give little indication that 



Conclusions as to Curriculum and Syllabi 163 

their authors have made a close study of present social life 
with the object of discovering the principal qualities that 
make one an effective participant in it. Nor do they give 
much indication that their authors have made a close study 
of children with the object of discovering those character- 
istics that must be used as the basis for growth. On the 
contrary, they contain much evidence that their authors are 
not much concerned with growth; that they are not in- 
terested in the development of children through the agency 
of teachers who are themselves developing; their point of 
view is static. 

The most striking fact about the curriculum and syllabi 
is the want of educational leadership that they display. 
Barring a few exceptions they could both easily have ap- 
peared twenty years ago, in spite of the fact that the last 
twenty years have been years of remarkable educational 
progress, particularly in the field of elementary instruction. 

Effect of the Curriculum and Syllabi on the Attitude of 
Teachers 

The effect of the curriculum and syllabi on the feeling 
of freedom among teachers is easily traced. Since their 
judgment is appealed to or relied upon at hardly any point, 
they naturally reach the conclusion that there is no pro- 
vision for their individuality in this printed matter, but 
that on the contrary they are distrusted and restrained by 
it. Of course, printed directions are not always followed. 
And it remains to see how the schools are supervised, be- 
fore final conclusions can be reached as to the degree of 
freedom that the teachers actually enjoy in practise. 

Effect of Curriculum and Syllabi on Instruction in the 
Elementary School 

According to the by-laws of the Board of Education 
(paragraph 8, section 40) these syllabi outline the mini- 
mum curriculum, thus making it peculiarly binding; and 



164 Standards for Instruction 

whether that regulation is fully enforced or not, they exert 
a great influence on the quality of instruction. Resting 
on so low a plane, their depressing effect on active-minded, 
progressive teachers is not easily overestimated. It would 
be next to impossible for a good teacher to present the 
course in geography for Grade 4B or 5A, as now outlined, 
in a way that would make the instruction even fairly satis- 
factory. And the same must be said of many other parts 
of the curriculum. So far, then, as their exclusive influ- 
ence is concerned, the curriculum and the syllabi not only 
fail to inspire good teachers, or to encourage them by show- 
ing the relation of the aims and principles of education 
to subject-matter and method, but they directly limit them 
to low ideals. 

Probably some of the leaders in the New York City 
system would admit that the present plan does take little 
cognizance of the good teacher; and they might defend it 
on the ground that the good teacher can look out for 
herself. 

Consider then the young and the poor teachers. Edu- 
cators must be optimistic enough to believe in the great 
capacity of such teachers to improve.. In fact, there is no 
option about meeting that demand. The capacity of chil- 
dren to improve through instruction is assumed in the es- 
tablishment of the school. And they cannot do this to a 
normal degree unless their teachers themselves are growing. 

Assuming the capacity of the young and the poor teachers 
to grow, one of the first means to this end is that such 
extremely important documents as the curriculum and 
syllabi provide plainly for their growth. If we take such 
teachers where they are, and immediately direct them at 
every important turn, on the basis of mere authority, they 
will not even remain where they are; they will rather 
become less progressive and less happy from year to year. 
And, with several hundred teachers entering the system 
every year the time will soon come when the great major- 
ity will be unprogressive and discontented. That has neces- 



Conclusions as to Curriculum and Syllabi 165 

sarily been the tendency, so far as this curriculum and 
these syllabi have exerted an influence. 

In short, freedom to grow, and positive aids to growth, 
are necessary alike for all teachers, young or old, poor or 
good. But this curriculum and these syllabi have neither 
allowed this freedom nor furnished these aids, and in these 
facts we find at least a partial explanation of the poor 
quality of the teaching. 



CHAPTER XI 
RECOMMENDATIONS x 

I. AS TO MINOR CHANGES 

A LARGE number of minor changes are needed in the 
present curriculum. Many of these have already 
been clearly enough indicated in our discussion of the in- 
dividual courses of study. Some of the more important, 
however, may be enumerated and more clearly explained 
here. 

Technical Grammar 

Technical grammar should not have a place as a separate 
study. Its time should be given over to literature and to 
composition, the latter including those facts from grammar 
that are directly useful in securing correct oral and written 
expression. 

Nature Study 

The course in nature study needs extensive reorganiza- 
tion in accordance with the suggestions made where that 
subject is under discussion (p. 106). 

English History 

English history should not be taught as a separate sub- 
ject; but those topics that are necessary for the proper 

1 It must be understood that these recommendations are regarded by 
us as only a safe basis of experimentation for the progressive improvement 
of the curriculum. Such experimentation can be effective only when the re- 
sults achieved are carefully observed and appraised for a sufficient period of 
time. There is no other way known to us of testing the validity of such 
standards as we have set up, or of their efficacy in practise. 

166 



Recommendations 167 

comprehension of United States history should be taught, 
in connection with the latter. 

Arithmetic 

A considerable part of the present course in arithmetic 
should be omitted. During the first six years, the funda- 
mental operations — addition, subtraction, multiplication, 
and division of whole numbers and simple fractions, both 
common and decimal, should be emphasized, together with 
percentage and its simplest applications to interest and 
trade discount. 

In those years the effort should be made to secure ac- 
curacy and a reasonable degree of facility. During the 
last two years the time devoted to arithmetic should be 
reduced from five forty-minute periods to not more than 
three forty-minute periods per week. The first object of 
the instruction should be to bring the pupils to the degree 
of efficiency in the fundamental operations proposed by 
Mr. Courtis. 

Beyond that, the time should be devoted to the appli- 
cations of arithmetic, such as are needed in connection 
with geography, history, civics, and other subjects. The 
arithmetic for the higher grades has not yet fulfilled its 
function. Geography locates leading industries, and gives 
reasons for the location; history, civics, and other subjects 
offer other facts about such topics as the above; but 
what a great railroad system really is can be understood 
only when one comes to understand how many men it 
employs, what income they receive, how long they have to 
work, how many are killed per year, what quantities of 
goods are transported, how much capital is invested, what 
profit the stock brings, etc. Likewise, one must know the 
quantities involved, in order to appreciate what a war ship 
means, what a farmer does, what a mine is. The principal 
purpose of this portion of the arithmetic should be, not to 
teach processes, but to identify the pupil, in knowledge and 
interest, with his business environment; or, perhaps better, 



1 68 Standards for Instruction 

with his environment on the quantitative side ; just as liter- 
ature identifies him with the moral and esthetic elements of 
his environment, and fine art with his esthetic environment. 

Correlation of Studies 

An extensive rearrangement of the curriculum is neces- 
sary in order to establish a fuller correlation among the 
studies. 

Course for the Seventh Grade 

The work of the seventh year in particular is greatly in 
need of enrichment. In order to accomplish that object, 
most of the studies for that year need serious modification, 
as briefly suggested in connection with the discussion of 
these particular subjects under " Curriculum and Syllabi/' * 

2. ADJUSTMENT OF THE CURRICULUM TO INDIVIDUAL 
SCHOOLS 

The leading question, however, concerns the uniform 
curriculum for all the schools. That is already a pressing 
question with reference to the seventh and eighth grades, 
inasmuch as there is much demand for the establishment 
of intermediate schools for children of those grades, in 
which different courses shall be offered. 2 

Take a simple situation. In a certain city there are two 
schools under one management. Heretofore the officers of 
each school, i. e., principal and teachers, have taken the ini- 
tiative in preparing its curriculum and have done most of 
the work. Having their eyes on the particular children 
concerned, each group has made a course under the influ- 
ence of their own experience. And, as might be expected, 
the curricula of the two schools are unlike in many par- 
ticulars. The subject-matter, being reasonably adapted to 

1 See also Dr. Bachman's discussion of the elementary school course of 
study in his reports on Promotions and Non-promotions and on The Inter- 
mediate School. 

2 See Intermediate Schools. 



Recommendations 169 

the pupils in quality and amount, and there being no neces- 
sity of keeping pace with an army of other children, little 
complaint about overcrowding is heard in either school. 

What would be the effects if the two schools were re- 
quired to follow the same curriculum? In a striking way 
the principle of adapting subject-matter to particular chil- 
dren would be abandoned ; the individuality of the teachers 
would be ignored, with many evil consequences; and the 
way would be paved for complaints about overcrowding 
and the opposite. 

A general misfit would appear. The following statement 
seems, then, to be worthy of ranking as a principle in the 
making of a curriculum; namely, it should be planned on 
the basis of the particular children to whom it is to be 
taught, as that basis is interpreted by those who know the 
children best. Changes may be effected by higher author- 
ity, but the teachers and principal should take the initiative 
and do the main work. 

The differences among the hundreds of elementary schools 
in New York City are much more striking than those be- 
tween the two schools mentioned. Keeping this fact in 
mind, and also the principle just stated, we propose the 
gradual adoption of the following plan for this city: 

The principal and teachers of a school in one of the 
crowded sections of the East Side, assisted by the best 
talent among the superintendents, shall plan a curriculum 
for that particular school. In this way, all the inhabitants 
of the city might be shown what one good curriculum is. 
Since the upper West Side contains a very different kind 
of population, a curriculum for a particular school there 
might be planned in a similar manner. Thus a second cur- 
riculum might be secured, adapted to a particular situation. 
For a certain school in The Bronx, representing a third 
type of environment and of pupils, a curriculum might be 
prepared under like conditions; and a fourth, fifth, and 
others might follow, according to the number of somewhat 
distinctive types of schools in the entire city. 



170 Standards for Instruction 

With the help of these curricula principals and teachers 
of other schools might take the initiative in preparing cur- 
ricula for their own schools. If they lacked ability, or 
energy, or power to cooperate with one another, or all these 
together, they could at least adopt outright one of the 
several types already developed that most nearly fitted their 
own conditions. In that case they would probably get a 
much better fit than that which they now have. 

On the other hand, if they possessed ability, energy, and 
power to cooperate, they might modify one of the curricula 
in a way that would adapt it more fully to their own con- 
ditions — with the very important responsibility of having 
to defend and perhaps abandon such modifications, if their 
district superintendent opposed them forcibly. The result 
of such a plan would be that the curricula would be far 
more carefully fitted to the needs of pupils throughout the 
city, and that the teachers, exercising initiative more fully, 
would be more active-minded and progressive, more effec- 
tive as teachers, and happier. 

According to the plan that is actually followed now, one 
curriculum is made out, without reference to any particular 
school, with the hope that it will fit all and with the knowl- 
edge that it will fit none. There are glaring misfits on 
every hand. In spite of the fact that nature study and 
home geography should vary greatly according to environ- 
ment, and ought to vary more, according to the ability of 
the teacher, only one course is offered to all. In spite of 
the fact that four fifths of the children in some schools hear 
only a foreign language at home, while few in other schools 
hear anything but English, all are expected to spend ap- 
proximately the same time in the study of English. And 
of course there must be overcrowding for some tens of 
thousands, and not enough work for other tens, while all 
suffer more or less. 

All this would not be so bad if it did not carry another 
thing with it that is worse. That is, that such open and 
utter lack of adjustment to individual conditions, in a thing 



Recommendations 171 

so vital to the entire educational system as the curriculum, 
destroys the principle of adjustment to individual condi- 
tions in general; indeed, it advertises the principle of non- 
adjustment. Minor offenses against adaptation to particu- 
lar circumstances — such as poor method might commit — 
seem trivial, after seeing the principle authoritatively ignored 
in a curriculum issued by the Board of Superintendents. 
If those who select the subject-matter thus disregard local 
conditions, why should not the teacher ? Then, why should 
not all topics be taught alike ? Why should not all children 
be treated alike and held for the same results ? Why should 
there even be any individuality in the appearance of the 
school rooms? (Primary school rooms are strikingly dis- 
tinguished from kindergarten rooms now by absence of 
growing plants, pets, and other home-like attractions.) 
Thus the key to the excessive uniformity prevailing in the 
elementary schools is found in the uniform curriculum. 
There can never be excellent instruction here, so long as 
the very definition of good instruction is nullified in a thing 
so prominent as the curriculum. 

We are keenly aware that there are many phases of this 
question that cannot be touched upon here. But one other 
consideration must be added. The assertion is sure to be 
heard that uniformity is necessary for administrative pur- 
poses. That depends upon what administration is for. If 
its object is to help secure good instruction, then it is to be 
condemned if it does not accomplish that end. And, pro- 
vision for the individuality of pupils and teachers being one 
of the very standards by which the character of adminis- 
tration must be tested, one of the first duties of the ad- 
ministrators of schools is to overcome the tendency toward 
uniformity, rather than to establish it. Further, if the pro- 
posed plan — touching the curriculum — is unsatisfactory 
to the superintendents of the city, then the task awaits them 
of proposing another that has the same purpose but is more 
effective. 



172 Standards for Instruction 



3. CHARACTER OF THE SYLLABI 

The syllabi, as now printed, accomplish two things in the 
main; i.e., they amplify the very brief statements con- 
tained in the curriculum proper, and they offer directions 
and suggestions to teachers about method. In brief, they 
inform merely. 

Their purpose seems too narrowly conceived. What they 
thus present to teachers is in danger of lacking significance, 
like much of what they recommend that teachers shall 
present to children. It is fair to expect that leaders in a 
great system of education will offer their suggestions to 
teachers in a way that regards teaching as a profession, and 
hence stimulates and encourages. The information given 
should be subordinated to the uplift furnished. 

To this end, the main working aims and principles of 
instruction, that control selection of subject-matter and 
method, should be stated. It seems reasonable to assume 
that, if there are any persons who ought to understand and 
hold the aims and principles of teaching in mind, it is those 
persons who are doing the teaching. 

These aims and principles should be so worded and illus- 
trated that their direct influence on practise will be made 
clear; and the impossibility of there being, in most cases, 
one fixed and best method of treating details will be es- 
tablished. This will involve an appeal to the teacher's 
judgment in selection of methods. In this way syllabi 
might give necessary information while surrounding the 
teacher with an atmosphere of freedom and inspiring her 
by their breadth of thought. 



Supervision 



CHAPTER XII 

STANDARD FOR JUDGING QUALITY OF 
SUPERVISION 

RELATION OF PRINCIPAL TO AIMS OF THE SCHOOL 

THE principal, as head of the school, necessarily seeks 
to realize the aims which the school stands for. The 
relative importance of these aims must be the same for him 
as for the teachers, and others charged with their accom- 
plishment. He is merely the leader in bringing them to 
completion. (A somewhat detailed discussion of these aims 
is included in Part I of this report, treating standards for 
judging the quality of class-room instruction in the ele- 
mentary school, Chapter II.) 

HIS TWO KINDS OF DUTIES, AND THEIR RELATION TO EACH 
OTHER 

Two kinds of duties whose relation to each other is of 
the highest significance confront him from the start. On 
the one hand, he has to look after the condition of the 
building, the janitor's service, supplies, and fire drills; to 
consult with parents and children about tardiness, truancy, 
other misconduct, and health of pupils ; and to advise with 
teachers about these same things, together with the light- 
ing of rooms, adjustment of seats, care of desks, and books. 
On the other hand, he is responsible for such an organiza- 
tion of the school as will secure a high moral tone, and 
for such assistance to teachers as will place the instruction 
on a high plane. In other words, there is a very large class 
of duties, largely mechanical, that belong to the general 

i75 



176 Standards for Instruction 

manager and business man in distinction from the educator. 
There is another large class, dealing with instruction and 
the formation of good habits, that are technical in character, 
calling for skill as an educator. Not all of the principal's 
duties fall easily in one or the other of these two groups, 
but in the main the distinction is valid. 

Which of these two shall dominate the other and occupy 
the greater portion of his time, is one of the first questions 
to consider in judging the efficiency of a principal. If he 
is primarily a business manager, he should be judged as 
such. If he is primarily a professional leader, he should 
be judged very differently. The purpose of the school 
leaves no doubt about the proper decision of this question, 
for it makes the business management of a school only a 
prerequisite to its other more important work of education. 
Proper attention to physical conditions, and to numerous 
other details of general management, secures only the con- 
ditions on which effective instruction and government de- 
pend; and it is, therefore, merely a means, while the latter 
are the ends. A principal of a school must be closely iden- 
tified with instruction; and he must be judged primarily 
as a leader in that field, i. e., as a supervisor of instruction. 

DEPENDENCE OF PRINCIPAL ON HIS TEACHERS 

With a large school under his control, the principal can 
accomplish comparatively little alone. In organizing the 
school so that the active interest of children is enlisted in 
favor of good order and uplifting conditions, he is directly 
dependent upon his teachers; and in presenting ideas so 
that they shall exert a strong influence on pupils, he must 
likewise work almost entirely through his teachers. His 
main relationship as an educational leader, therefore, is to 
his teachers, and the influence that he exerts upon them in 
kind and degree is the chief measure of his worth to the 
school. 



Standard for Judging Supervision 177 



ON JUDGING EFFICIENCY OF A PRINCIPAL'S SUPERVISION 

The leading factors in effective class-room instruction 
have already been enumerated (Chapter II). According to 
that enumeration, one of the great duties of the teacher 
is to inspire her pupils to do specific things that are worth 
while. Of course, the only condition under which this can 
be accomplished is that the teacher herself be filled with 
purpose. She must hold the ultimate objects of her in- 
struction in mind continually, and must comprehend the 
specific purposes of large topics that she is presenting, as 
well as their relation to those aims that are more distant. 
Her own enthusiasm and her insight into the relation of 
the curriculum to active living will greatly affect her in- 
fluence on the motives of her pupils. One great function 
of the principal, therefore, is to contribute to her enthu- 
siasm and to this insight. 

We have seen that the teacher should accustom pupils 
to a careful organization of ideas, for the sake of clear- 
ness and force. Of course, her own ideas should exhibit 
these qualities plainly, in the field of both subject-matter 
and method. This is by no means easy; and, therefore, 
a second duty of the principal is to aid her actively in this 
whole matter, showing her often how she has failed to 
secure good organization, and how the failure might have 
been avoided. 

A third task of the class-room teacher is to lead children 
to weigh the relative values of facts, until considerations 
of value become as prominent in their intellectual work as 
in the business world. Of course the teacher must herself 
be constantly alive to varying worths. Otherwise, she will 
overlook the whole matter in order to accomplish this 
object. 

A third responsibility of the principal, therefore, is to 
instil in the teacher the conviction that he is ever on the 
lookout for this quality in his observation of her instruc- 



178 Standards for Instruction 

tion, and to advise with her frequently about methods of 
improvement in this direction. 

Finally, the teacher is responsible for inculcating a spirit 
of independence among her pupils, so that they will sub- 
ordinate the subject-matter of instruction to themselves; 
so that they will think their own thoughts, in their own 
way; so that they will take the initiative often, and prac- 
tise self-reliance in other ways also. The teacher cannot 
do this, cannot secure self-expression, unless she herself is 
practising it; unless she is clearly conscious of her own 
freedom to say and do what she sincerely believes in. It 
is the duty of the principal, therefore, to surround the 
teacher with such an atmosphere as will encourage her to 
think her own thoughts and to express them frankly, i. e., 
to be her normal self; also to impress upon her that he is 
ever watchful of her provision for self-expression among 
her pupils. 

In brief, the principal, as a professional leader, is working 
for the same ends as the class-room teacher, but his pupils 
are the teachers themselves. His worth is to be judged 
primarily by his skill as a leader, as a teacher of teachers, 
just as theirs is to be judged by their skill as teachers of 
children. Thus his first duty is to his teachers, to help 
them grow professionally. 

In the performance of this duty he is subject to all the 
principles of method to which they are subject, and should 
illustrate them continually in his contact with them. For 
that reason he cannot be merely a judge of instruction, 
an inspector, for as such he only passes upon the quality 
of a teacher's work, without aiding her greatly to improve. 
Nor can he be a dictator, merely giving her directions about 
what to do, for as such he emphasizes obedience in intel- 
lectual matters, and thus puts restraint about her, while it 
is his duty to make her feel free. He is prevented from 
assuming these relations to his teachers for the same reasons 
that they are prevented from assuming them toward their 
pupils. His general relation to his teachers, therefore, is 



Standard for Judging Supervision 179 

that of an adviser, basing his advice on reason and grant- 
ing their right to modify or, for good reasons, to reject 
it. This relationship is especially worthy of emphasis in 
a great system of schools, where uniformity in matters not 
pertaining to instruction is of the highest importance. 

With the attitude of an adviser, he must prove helpful 
to his teachers by connecting the details of their class-room 
instruction with the aims and principles of education. To 
the extent that he can do this, and according to the spirit 
in which he does it, he is efficient as an educational leader 
or supervisor. 



CHAPTER XIII 

APPLICATION OF THIS STANDARD 
PROPORTION OF TIME SPENT IN SUPERVISION 

IN October, 191 1, we sent a questionnaire to eighty- three 
elementary school principals, one of the questions touch- 
ing upon the proportion of time spent by the principal on 
administration and on supervision. Thirty-two of the re- 
plies, taken at random from Brooklyn, Manhattan, and The 
Bronx, show an average of approximately two thirds of 
the entire school time spent in administrative duties, as dis- 
tinguished from the work of supervision. 

CHARACTER OF THE SUPERVISION 

I. AS LEARNED BY OBSERVATION, AND BY INTERVIEWS WITH 
PRINCIPALS 

Let us now consider the character of the supervision 
that takes place. The principals have uniformly responded 
very readily to our requests for information about their 
work. One of the requests was the privilege of accom- 
panying the principal as he supervised, and listening to any 
remarks that he made, either to the teacher before her 
class, or to her class in her presence, or to the teacher in 
private after her class was dismissed. Many extremely in- 
teresting observations were thus made, and while it should 
be borne in mind that there are exceptions to many of the 
statements immediately following, possibly to every one, 
the facts collected indicate the prevalence of the following 

four practises: 

180 



Application of this Standard 181 

a. The time spent by a principal with any one teacher, 
on any one occasion, is extremely small. For example, one 
principal, when asked what his plan of supervision was, 
replied : " I am busy with administrative matters from 9 
till 10.30 a. m. Then I regularly spend one hour in super- 
vision." " What do you do?" was asked. "I make the 
rounds, visiting each room." " How many rooms have 
you? " " Fifty-two," was the reply. Many principals thus 
plan to " make the rounds " every day, spending a minute 
or two in each room, occupying at least half of their entire 
time for supervision in this way. 

Invariably, when the principal was asked to allow the 
visitor to accompany him on his tour of supervision, the 
principal was requested to follow his usual plan and re- 
main as long in any one room as he ordinarily would. In 
this way, often five, six, and seven rooms in one school 
were visited. Taking all the visits together, the average 
time was probably not over six minutes. Very seldom did 
any principal care to remain longer than ten minutes with 
one teacher. 

b. Although the principal was asked to allow the visitor 
to hear any remarks that he might make to any teacher, 
as a rule no remarks were made. One principal stated, in 
starting out, "Of course I shall not say anything unless 
something is going wrong," and nothing proved to be going 
wrong. Almost every principal was plainly welcome in 
each room, as judged by the attitude of teacher and pupils, 
and he usually seemed in sympathy with the instruction; 
but silence was his rule. Of course some, and perhaps 
much, of this quiet may have been due to the presence of 
a visitor. 

c. Naturally, most of the remarks that were made were 
offered in the privacy of the principal's office. One strik- 
ing characteristic of those interviews with individual 
teachers was, again, their shortness. They seldom lasted 
more than three or four minutes. 

d. The final fact of interest was the content of the re- 



1 82 Standards for Instruction 

marks. Most of the principals showed great tact in free- 
ing the teachers from embarrassment. But usually the 
principal had set aside no time for special preparation for 
the interview; and he apparently felt no need of special 
study for it, since he made no request for time for reflec- 
tion. What was said, therefore, touched only such matters 
as came at first thought; the points were necessarily few 
in number, they were introduced without much reference 
to organization, and they received no fundamental treat- 
ment. There was usually no sign that any particular ques- 
tion was being followed up in the various grades or with 
a particular teacher. Also the conviction seemed to be 
common that on account of the large number of teachers 
only a few minutes should be spent in conference with any 
one teacher. 



2. AS LEARNED THROUGH REPORTS FROM TEACHERS 

Altogether, not less than one hundred teachers, repre- 
senting all parts of the city, have, in ways that have been 
of service to us, expressed their opinion about the helpful- 
ness of the principals' supervision. Many of these teachers 
have known at the time that their statements were to be 
used; many others have been entirely unconscious of the 
fact. Much care has been used to secure as extensive and 
representative an expression of opinion as possible. 

Statements Concerning Individual Help Received 

One teacher of an 8B class, when asked to what extent 
he had received helpful suggestions from higher authori- 
ties, replied, " No help at all." He had been nearly thirty 
years in the system. Another teacher, who had been asked 
four or five questions by the visitor about his plan of work, 
when asked the further question, " How often and how 
long has any principal or superintendent discussed your 
instruction with you, either its method or the selection of 
subject-matter ? " replied, " Practically not at all." Then 



Application of this Standard 183 

he added, " You have shown more curiosity, and have 
quizzed me and talked with me longer, than have all the 
principals and superintendents in my twenty-one years of 
experience in the New York system." 

Of fourteen teachers who were asked by one visitor, 
" What positive help do you receive from your principal ? " 
thirteen replied, " No definite help." One said that she had 
received positive help, but could give no example. Most of 
them expressed surprise that a question should be asked 
so foreign to their experience. Some stated that their prin- 
cipal could help them if he had more time. 

One teacher said : " My principal visits me, perhaps, one 
half-hour per term. But we have no discussion together, 
and he gives practically no criticisms. My former principal 
was more helpful; he gave model lessons." One teacher, 
who has been seven years in the system, stated that he had 
never received any real criticism from any higher officer. 
In one school, several teachers together agreed that, " No 
one ever discusses methods with us, with the view of stim- 
ulating and helping." 

It is unnecessary to reproduce other replies here, since 
they are of the same general nature. 

Statements Concerning Conferences of Teachers Held by 
Principals 

Since many superintendents of schools, perhaps, exert 
their main influence upon their teachers through teachers' 
meetings, it is important to consider the value of such 
meetings held by principals. 

The conferences to w T hich teachers are called, say very 
many teachers, are not conferences at all. They are meet- 
ings in which the principal offers a list of directions, or 
orders, usually about routine matters, but sometimes about 
the more serious aspects of instruction. On such occasions 
there is usually no general discussion — not even an at- 
tempt at discussion. Frequently, when a teacher has been 
asked by a visitor if she felt free to disagree with her 



184 Standards for Instruction 

principal and debate a question, she has smiled and replied, 
" No, it would not be wise." Indeed, it is common for 
teachers to declare that mental independence and insubor- 
dination are considered as practically synonymous through- 
out the system; hence fear of punishment by a low mark 
— such as a C, that very seriously checks promotion — 
prevents freedom of expression. 

On the other hand, there are principals here and there 
who certainly have admirable plans for teachers' meetings. 
For example, one principal selects one of his best teachers 
as a grade leader in each grade. He meets this group of 
leaders oftener in conference than the other teachers, but 
all meet for real discussion frequently. Another principal 
has the habit of making his first approach to the discussion 
of a principle of education in conference with all his 
teachers, and he often makes it entirely apart from the 
work of any particular teacher, because he thinks that his 
older teachers — with their fixed habits and prejudices — 
can be more easily reached in this impersonal way. 

But in general the teachers who have been interviewed 
with regard to the nature of principals' conferences are 
agreed that instruction occupies a very small place in them, 
that discussion in them is rare, and that they depress rather 
than stimulate the teachers. 



CHAPTER XIV 

FACTS INDICATING THAT THESE CONDITIONS 
ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CITY AT 
LARGE 

THE preceding statements are the results of reports 
from observations and interviews with a small minor- 
ity of the entire teaching force in the city. Taken alone, 
therefore, they cannot be regarded as sufficient basis for 
general conclusions in regard to the supervision by prin- 
cipals. What other facts can be offered, that tend either 
to support these statements or to disprove them? There 
are several. 



I. PROMINENCE OF ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES OF PRINCIPALS 
AND ITS EFFECT 

The first facts bear on the prominence of administrative 
duties of principals. As already stated, it is probable that 
two thirds of all the time and energy of principals is de- 
voted to these duties especially. In a city growing as 
rapidly as Greater New York there is temptation to spend 
all one's efforts in this direction; and unless one clearly 
distinguishes between the two kinds of work, administra- 
tion and supervision, and energetically subordinates the one 
to the other, the temptation will not be overcome. Reports 
received from principals themselves (referred to on page 
1 80) show that some of them attempt no distinction be- 
tween these two classes of duties. If, then, they do what- 
ever at the time seems most pressing, they are almost sure 
to exhaust themselves in the details of administration. 

185 



1 86 Standards for Instruction 

But many principals who make some distinction here, 
and who greatly desire to identify themselves extensively 
with instruction, admit that it is impossible to do so, owing 
to the more immediate pressure of other tasks. Every prin- 
cipal, for example, is held directly responsible for the cor- 
rectness of all reports that issue from his school. Even 
in signing the salary sheet, he must certify that none of the 
regulations, by-laws, etc., has been violated or that all vio- 
lations have been reported. He must report on the condi- 
tion of the building, on heating, ventilation, cleanliness, 
repairs, seating, lighting, fire drills; must make out esti- 
mates of supplies needed, must see to their distribution and 
adjustment ; must interview parents ; must know absentees 
and follow up cases of truancy, and attend to other cases 
of misconduct. Besides all this, he must see to the execu- 
tion of a large number of directions from higher school 
authorities. He must attend to all these matters and more, 
quite apart from those pertaining directly to instruction. 
Further, his efficiency as a principal, he believes, is likely 
to be judged by his superior officers primarily by his 
promptness and accuracy in regard to these more mechan- 
ical but tangible matters; for that reason he is almost 
compelled to consume his energies in things external to 
instruction. 

2. GREAT SIZE OF MANY SCHOOLS AND ITS EFFECT 

The large size of many of the schools — some having 
between 4,000 and 5,000 children — greatly intensifies this 
difficulty. The principals interviewed have expressed them- 
selves almost unanimously as to the proper size, maintain- 
ing that a school should number only so many teachers as 
the personal acquaintance and influence of the principal can 
effectively reach ; and the outside limit is about thirty, with 
1,500 children. Many would much prefer to limit the 
number of children to 1,000. 

This is a very serious matter; for the larger the school, 



Conditions of City at Large 187 

the greater the pressure on the principal to do solely ad- 
ministrative work. The furnishing of assistant principals, 
one to every twenty teachers or so, beyond twenty-eight, is 
by no means a remedy for this evil. One reason is that 
many of these assistant principals are spending most of 
their time in clerical or other routine work. Being assist- 
ants, under the direction of the principal, they assist him 
in doing the work that is most pressing upon him. There 
is great waste of money at this point, in allowing assistant 
principals to do work at two to three times the rate of 
pay that the work itself is worth. 

But a deeper reason for the failure of a plan which 
assumes that assistant principals can do the work of a prin- 
cipal, is that active supervision of instruction is something 
that cannot be easily delegated. While the criticism of 
instruction, whether positive or negative, should be based 
on technical reasons rather than on authority, it constantly 
involves personal relations; it often severely tests temper, 
as well as respect for ability. It is the most natural thing 
in the world for a teacher who is adversely criticized to 
question the fitness of an assistant to act as critic, when, if 
that same assistant were principal in full charge, there would 
be no question. A teacher, therefore, may be inclined to 
appeal over the head of the assistant to the principal him- 
self, to settle a disagreement, or at least to show disrespect 
for an assistant. This tendency necessarily makes the as- 
sistant principal very wary about offering any negative criti- 
cism, and some omit it entirely on that account. It should 
be remembered, too, that almost every assistant principal 
is looking forward to a principalship — an ambition that 
is laudable, but one that does not tend to eliminate friction 
between the principal and an assistant. 

Further, the very attitude of supervisors toward educa- 
tion is affected by the size of a school. If a school is small 
enough to allow personal relations to prevail, it seems 
reasonable to strive toward recognition of the individuality 
of both teachers and pupils. But let the number of pupils 



1 88 Standards for Instruction 

rise into thousands, and it begins to seem hopeless to try 
to make provision for the individual qualities of anybody. 
The larger the school, the more nearly the factory spirit 
is approached. The absolute necessity of mass action in all 
external matters is self-evident, and that spirit is carried 
over directly into the instruction itself. Thus, the very 
ideals of supervisors — both as to the characteristics of 
good instruction, and as to what they themselves shall stand 
for with their teachers — are seriously affected by the size 
of the schools. 

In brief, supervision of instruction in the smaller schools 
is largely crowded out by administrative duties, and in the 
larger schools supervision is necessarily even less efficient. 



3. LACK OF AUTHORITY AMONG PRINCIPALS AND ITS 
EFFECT 

Remembering that much less than half of the time and 
energy of principals goes to supervision, nominally the 
main thing, let us consider the degree of freedom that the 
principal enjoys to do what he believes to be needed in his 
school, so far as he has time. 

1. Lack of Authority as to Lines of Study 

The separate lines of work, called studies, that are pur- 
sued in each grade, are determined by the Board of Super- 
intendents. Aside from one slight option in the eighth 
grade, the principal has no authority in this matter. 

2. Lack of Authority as to Content of Each Branch of 
Study 

What the subject-matter shall be, in each subject, is also 
determined for him. Section 40 (paragraph 8) of the by- 
laws of the Board of Education declares that " The Board 
of Superintendents shall, from time to time, issue syllabuses 
in the various branches taught, which shall be regarded as 



Conditions of City at Large 189 

the minimum amount of work required in such branches." 
At the beginning of the course in mathematics is the state- 
ment that " Both the course of study and the syllabus pro- 
vide for minimum requirements." While most of the other 
courses and syllabi contain no such specific statement, and 
some of the branches, beyond question, contain too much 
subject-matter to be followed closely, the general under- 
standing, as stated to us both by principals and teachers, 
is that the above by-law is to be obeyed as nearly as pos- 
sible. In other words, the principal has practically no au- 
thority as to the content of the various subjects in the 
curriculum. 

3. Lack of Authority as to Amount of Time for Each 
Study 

The number of minutes per week to be devoted to each 
subject of study is also largely fixed for the principal by 
the Board of Superintendents. Where there is likely to be 
some doubt about how the time should be divided, in case 
a subject is not taught every day, even the exact length of 
each period of recitation is also fixed. For example, in 
the seventh year there are 120 minutes per week allowed 
for geography, and this must be divided into three periods. 
Some of the superintendents have stated that the principal 
is given great freedom in time allotment for studies, owing 
to the number of minutes per week set aside for " study 
and unassigned time." There is such a provision, and the 
maximum amount per week of such time, for any one grade, 
is 235 minutes in the seventh year. But, in all grades above 
the third, thirty minutes of this time per day, or 150 per 
week, is set aside by the superintendents for study of such 
subjects as require preparation. That leaves 85 minutes 
per week, or 17 per day, as the maximum amount in these 
five grades that can freely be assigned by the principal. 
The amount allowed in the first three grades ranges from 
35 to 42 minutes per day. Thus, it is seen that the prin- 



190 Standards for Instruction 

cipal is given only a slight degree of freedom in allotting 
time to the several branches of study. 

4. Lack of Authority as to Method of Teaching 

The two topics dealt with in the various syllabi are 
subject-matter and method, the latter occupying probably 
somewhat more than half the space. 

In treating of method for the benefit of teachers one 
feasible plan is to state those aims and principles that most 
directly influence method, and then to show their influence 
by means of illustrations. In this way the controlling fac- 
tors in the presentation of ideas are made clear, while the 
teachers are left entirely free as to details. There is little 
suggestion of this kind of procedure in the New York City 
syllabi. 

Another plan that still allows much freedom is to omit 
reference to aims and principles, but to present several ways 
of treating a topic, from among which teachers may choose 
what most appeals to them. In this way teachers are likely 
to get glimpses of controlling aims and principles, even 
though these are not definitely stated; and while receiving 
some guidance they are left free from narrow restraint. 
That is not the plan followed in the New York City syllabi. 

A third plan is to omit reference to aims and principles, 
and to offer only one way of presenting a topic, with the 
strong suggestion that that way be followed. That fails 
utterly to dignify teaching, to be sure, and limits the teachers 
very narrowly. But that is the plan essentially followed 
throughout the New York City syllabi. 

One important standard for judging excellence in the 
method of teaching a topic is found in the extent to which 
the presentation is affected by the particular conditions in 
a given class. Yet such a standard is conspicuously absent 
from these syllabi. In providing the same curriculum for 
all schools of the city, practically without suggestion of 
variation for particular conditions, the school authorities 



Conditions of City at Large 191 

have, as far as they well could, abandoned all idea of adap- 
tation to individual circumstances. In the syllabi dealing 
with method the same spirit is in control, for a strikingly 
prevalent desire is shown there to have particular topics 
taught the same way in all the schools. For example, there 
is a general plan consisting of three steps, " for the appre- 
ciative reading of a masterpiece" in literature; another 
plan, consisting of three steps, in composition, " for a study 
of a specimen of narration, description, exposition, and 
familiar letters selected from literature " ; another plan 
consisting of eight steps in geography, for " studying a 
country " ; and another in arithmetic consisting of eight 
steps, for " learning the combinations of each table." Why 
there should be this uniformity is not discussed, but that 
the desire for it is strong is evident. 

It should be remembered that these plans are only " sug- 
gested," not required, in the syllabi, and the idea that 
particular procedures are " required " is distinctly disclaimed 
in some places. But in the majority of cases where specific 
directions are given, the word should is used ; for example, 
in history, in the sixth and seventh years, the syllabus states 
that " No notes should be dictated by the teacher, nor 
should home study be required of pupils." In a few places, 
too, in the midst of such directions, a given method is 
declared to be " optional," which makes one question the 
optional character of the others. 

The degree of restraint placed upon teachers by these 
specific directions depends upon how seriously the teachers 
interpret them. The testimony of principals and teachers 
and our own observation justify the assertion that the 
teachers, as a body, have learned to take them quite seri- 
ously. It is evident, therefore, that in the field of method, 
as well as in adaptations of the curriculum, the efforts of 
principals are forestalled by the syllabi. The main points 
in method are already determined for them when they take 
charge of their schools. 



192 Standards for Instruction 

5. Diminished Authority Due to District Superintendents 
and Special Supervisors 

Diminished authority among principals, owing to the 
relation that district superintendents bear to them, is an- 
other matter of importance. First of all, it should be re- 
membered that the district superintendent rates the prin- 
cipals under him each year, and that such rating is an 
influential factor in the principal's promotion in position 
and salary. The principal is thus directly subject to the 
district superintendent. 

Meanwhile, the district superintendent is directly related 
to the teachers themselves. He is required to rate them, 
also, each year, and his rating is a very influential factor in 
their promotion. He does not necessarily reach the teachers 
through the principals; in fact, he very often dictates to 
them about method directly. In addition, when teachers 
are dissatisfied with a principal's ruling, they can appeal 
over the principal's head to the district superintendent. 

The effect of this situation upon the teachers is very 
definite; i. e., they are inclined to look to the district super- 
intendent, rather than to the principal, as their head, so 
that the real center of gravity of the school is placed en- 
tirely outside of the school itself. 

For example, here and there principals are found who 
do not believe in having teachers keep Plan and Progress 
books, i. e., plans of work, and records of work accom- 
plished. But if a given district superintendent requires 
them, they must be kept by the teachers. Again, here and 
there are principals who are opposed to one fixed plan of 
teaching all countries in geography, or all classic selections 
in literature. But if the district superintendent is known 
to expect such plans, the teachers feel the necessity of obey- 
ing. In that case the principal may also yield, for one of 
his duties is to protect his teachers against the mark C 
from the district superintendent. Occasionally, a principal 
has admitted that he helps his teachers, as far as he can 



Conditions of City at Large 193 

— against his own convictions of what is sound — to pre- 
pare the children for the exact kind of test that the district 
superintendent is known to give. During the time not re- 
quired for that, he attempts a very different kind of work 
with his teachers, in accordance with his own ideas. Thus 
the syllabi touching method are seen to be binding on prin- 
cipals as well as on teachers. 

The requirements of the district superintendent are by 
no means confined to the statements in the syllabi. The 
occasional conferences that the district superintendents hold, 
whether of principals or teachers, occupy the time mainly 
with directions about routine matters, or with the more 
mechanical phases of instruction. But even when the vital 
factors of instruction are treated, the superintendent's 
method is usually the same, i. e., desired changes are dic- 
tated that presuppose obedience on the part of all concerned, 
rather than scrutiny and discussion. Thus it is seen that 
not only is there a lack of real educational leadership on 
the part of the district superintendents, but an influence is 
exerted by them that seriously limits the freedom of the 
principals. 

The principal's helplessness is, perhaps, most evident in 
his relation to special supervisors. In a certain third grade 
the regular teacher was holding a recitation in music, in 
which the entire time was occupied with drill upon certain 
notes. When asked why she so emphasized the technique, 
she replied that she did not believe in it, but that there 
were twenty cards with notes that the pupils were expected 
to master in her grade, and that this work consumed all the 
time. Later, the principal, in talking over the music, like- 
wise opposed the plan, but stated that he was powerless to 
modify it. So here was a situation in which the principal 
and the regular class teacher, who were primarily respon- 
sible for the welfare of those children, were following a 
plan to which both were opposed. That is not unusual. 
It would seem reasonable that a principal, as the head of 
a school and as the representative of the principles of gen- 



194 Standards for Instruction 

eral method, would be given an active voice in the control 
of the method of each subject taught in his school. This 
is especially important because of the well-known fact that 
persons specializing in particular subjects so often have little 
acquaintance with the broader aspects of education, and on 
that account overlook many of the larger principles that 
should govern their own work. 

One would think that the principals of the elementary 
schools, approximately 500 in number, could, by combining, 
exert a powerful influence upon their own status and the 
entire educational situation. But there is no established 
avenue of approach to the school authorities that are over 
them. In their meetings, from time to time, they have 
reached conclusions and sent in recommendations to these 
higher authorities, but usually without result and very often 
without recognition. This has happened so often that in 
a recent meeting of principals, consisting of sixty to seventy- 
five persons, the following statement was almost unani- 
mously agreed to as representing their view of their rela- 
tion to the authorities over them: 

" The impression has been created among principals that 
individual principals, who have been so fortunate as to 
seem to have done some notably effective work, might hope 
for recognition or even consultation; but that any body of 
opinion formed at a conference of principals is not to be 
encouraged." 

On account of the power of the district superintendent 
over the schools, some of the principals assert outright that, 
instead of being the primary authority in their schools, they 
are merely agents of the district superintendents ; and many 
of the principals feel a very serious lack of freedom on 
account of this influence. 



Conditions of City at Large 195 



4. THE FREQUENCY AND MANNER OF THE RATING OF 
TEACHERS, AND EFFECTS 

One of the by-laws of the Board of Education (section 
41, paragraph 10) requires that the district superintendent 
rate every teacher in his district at least once per year. 
This rating forms a very important part of the basis for 
judging the excellence of a teacher and, consequently, her 
right to promotion. Since a district superintendent, on the 
average, has charge of about 700 teachers, it is evident 
that he must spend a large part of his time merely in judging 
teachers; he becomes, thereby, an inspector rather than a 
supervisor, trying to discover what is, rather than endeavor- 
ing to improve it. Ordinarily there is no understanding that 
he visits teachers in order to help them. It is very com- 
mon to hear teachers say that they have never known of a 
case where a district superintendent talked over a teacher's 
instruction with her in order to help her. And since he 
can spend only a few minutes with any one teacher, the 
impression that he receives in that short time becomes a 
matter of great moment. Commonly, when he enters a 
building, word of his arrival is passed rapidly about, and the 
one absolute requirement, as the teachers state it, is that the 
recitation shall go " dead smooth " in his presence. The 
reason for rehearsing these facts here is to show that the 
prominence thus given to the rating of teachers tends 
strongly to focus the attention of the entire staff of teachers 
upon it, so that it is difficult for the principal to interest 
them actively in phases of instruction not concerned with 
such rating. 

Next, observe the basis of the rating. 

Each teacher is supposedly marked for renewal of license 
on a list of seventeen points, which on that account exert 
a marked influence on the quality of instruction; the list 
used for later promotion of teachers is almost exactly the 
same, with a few additional points. 



196 Standards for Instruction 

The seventeen points are as follows : 

1. Ability to comprehend instructions. 

2. Ability to cooperate with other teachers. 

3. Skill in blackboard work. 

4. Skill in questioning. 

5. Skill in presentation. 

6. Use of objective illustration. 

7. Power to interest. 

8. Thoroughness of drill. 

9. Self-control and manners. 

10. Use of English language. 

11. Use of voice. 

12. Attendance. 

13. Punctuality. 

14. Personal tidiness. 

15. Accuracy in keeping records and making reports, 

16. Control of class. 

17. Energy and success in self -improvement. 

The first important fact about this list is the things that 
it does not include. For example, if a teacher has estab- 
lished a close personal relation with her pupils, that merit 
finds no direct recognition in this list. If she is working 
with them individually to an unusual degree, or is especially 
successful in developing their self-reliance, or is distributing 
the work unusually well among them, or is leading them to 
appreciate the relative values of facts carefully; or if she 
is herself organizing the subject-matter with care, or show- 
ing rare originality or enthusiasm, no one of these points 
has a definite place in this list. To excel in these respects, 
therefore, does not plainly count, while excellence on the 
listed points does count. Naturally, then, since all teachers 
must be marked on the same basis, it becomes advisable for 
them to follow the list closely. The important fact again, 
concerning supervision, is that this list largely determines 
the prevailing characteristics of instruction, whether the 
principal so desires or not. 



Conditions of City at Large 197 

Here, then, is a plan according to which a marking sys- 
tem is made very prominent and the basis on which marks 
are given is made extremely narrow. The effect upon 
supervision by the principal is that he must sympathize with 
the teachers in their attention to these tests — or be out of 
touch with them — and, with his eye on this list of points 
for marking, he must, in the main, limit his efforts to its 
scope. 

Yet the greatest evil in the general plan is hardly the 
excessive prominence of tests — although one must ask why 
they should be so prominent, when they certainly are not a 
help to teachers and when a large portion of the teachers 
in many a school are not in a given year in line for renewal 
of license or for promotion during that year. 

Nor is the principal evil found in the fact that the list of 
points on which teachers are marked is merely incomplete. 
A list could never be made to include all elements of good 
instruction, unless it became so long that it would cease 
entirely to be usable. 

The most serious evil — because most fundamental — is 
the general point of view toward education that is shown 
in this list. In the first place, there is the assumption here 
that the value of instruction should be judged on the basis 
of the elements that immediately compose it. 

Educators get a hint of the inadequacy of this plan by 
their experience in filling out recommendation blanks from 
teachers' agencies. Striking facts about the performance 
of that task are the rapidity and thoughtlessness with which 
it is usually done and the worthlessness of the statements 
made. 

But instruction cannot be safely judged on the basis of 
the factors that compose it. We judge of a house by con- 
sidering the purposes for which it was built. We judge of 
a machine in the same way, and even of an oration. In- 
struction should be rated in a similar manner. As stated 
in the discussion of standards for judging the quality of 
teaching (pp. 5 et seq.), the main purposes to be accom- 



198 Standards for Instruction 

plished must form the standards by which its excellence shall 
be determined. The purposes suggested in that connection 
were : ( 1 ) the cultivation of ambitions, purposes, or mo- 
tives on the part of 'children; (2) the organization of sub- 
ject-matter; (3) the weighing of relative values among 
facts; (4) and, finally, the exercise of initiative or self- 
reliance on their part. 

A hasty perusal shows how completely this list of seven- 
teen points fails to suggest any of the purposes of teach- 
ing. The defect, then, is not so much that the list is in- 
complete, as that such elements of instruction are not the 
principal things to observe. A detailed list might occa- 
sionally be used by a supervisor for reference, simply to 
make sure that he was not entirely overlooking some of 
the minor things in teaching; but that is probably as far 
as its value reaches. 

The queries suggested in this list can be easily, and per- 
haps correctly, answered by a supervisor with almost no 
study. And even though the answers be correct, the main 
features of the teaching, whether good or bad, may still 
have been ignored. The explanation is that the things 
that decide the quality of instruction are found in the rela- 
tion that its elements bear to its purposes; and we may see 
its elements clearly without considering this relationship, 
just as one may clearly understand the meaning of every 
sentence in a paragraph without grasping its central thought. 

Thirty years ago, certain teachers of geography in a 
western state took great pride in their board work in 
geography; in the drawing of a continent, for example, 
location was accurately determined by numerous parallels 
of latitude and by meridians ; the coast line was made very 
heavy by rolling the chalk on its sharp edge against the 
board, and then the coast was shaded by at least a dozen 
carefully drawn lines. It was excellent board work, one 
map often requiring several hours. In fact, it was too good; 
and in one case the board of trustees forbade the practise, 
on the ground that the purposes of the instruction did not 



Conditions of City at Large 199 

warrant so much work of that sort. The teachers had be- 
come so absorbed in the details, that they had forgotten 
what the details were for. The writer calls to mind a 
certain recitation that was rated as admirable by a number 
of experienced superintendents, until they turned their at- 
tention from the teacher's manner, and from the details of 
the process, to the objects that it was supposed to accom- 
plish. Then it was discovered that it had not accomplished 
the purposes of a literature recitation, and also that it had 
not accomplished those of a recitation in reading, although 
it had avowedly been a recitation in one or the other. It 
was, accordingly, finally judged a failure. The same thing 
happens with many a recitation that seems good in its 
details. Similarly, some recitations that seem poor in their 
elements are found to be excellent when judged in the light 
of their principal purposes. 

The very ease with which this New York City blank 
can be filled out should make one suspicious of its worth. 
The judging of instruction is not so mechanical a task, nor 
so simple. One must approach a recitation with the main 
objects in mind that the recitation is to accomplish, and 
ever hold them in mind; that is the first requisite; then 
one must trace the connection between the means adopted 
and these ends. That is a task that varies greatly with each 
study and with almost every new recitation, and one that 
almost always requires careful study. 

This New York City list, therefore, has an injurious 
effect on the supervision of the elementary schools, because 
it influences the principal — who must assist the district 
superintendent in evaluating instruction — to judge the 
worth of teaching, without reference to the standards that 
determine worth; and, by keeping this up, he becomes so 
occupied with the details of instruction that he loses sight 
of the very purposes of instruction, and of the school as 
a whole. One of the striking facts about the elementary 
schools here is the disregard of the higher aims of instruc- 
tion. Furthermore, any principal or superintendent who 



200 Standards for Instruction 

spends much of his time marking teachers on the basis of 
such a detailed list — not having approached his task in a 
way that compels him to think deeply — will become less 
thoughtful every year, until he will cease to be a leader. 

There is another peculiarity of this list that is almost 
as serious as its superficiality, and that is its strong sug- 
gestion that instruction is to be judged almost solely in 
terms of what the teacher does. It is the teacher's self- 
control and manners ; the teacher's skill in blackboard work ; 
the teacher's use of English ; the teacher's personal tidiness ; 
the teacher's power, accuracy, etc., etc., that shall be con- 
sidered. Now, why should the teacher thus be the whole 
object of attention? If the children's conduct is the thing 
we are after, why should not that be the primary object 
of consideration in class? In other words, instruction in 
the main should be judged in terms, not of what the teacher 
does, but of what the child does. The principal standard 
for judging instruction, therefore, should consist of an 
enumeration of its few leading purposes ; and these should 
be expressed in terms of the pupil's activity. It is the chil- 
dren's motives that we are primarily interested in; the 
children's organization of ideas, their weighing of values, 
and their exercise of initiative. 

Here, then, is the situation in these elementary schools. 
Independently of the principal the rating of his teachers 
is made very prominent. The basis of this rating directs 
the attention of all concerned away from the aims of in- 
struction to its details alone; and it is stated in terms of 
the teacher's activity, not of the pupil's. If a high-minded, 
progressive principal takes charge of a school, determined 
to improve his teachers, he has the task of focusing their 
attention away from these examinations, away from the 
details of this list, to the high objects of teaching, and 
away from their own activity to that of their pupils'. Here 
is a partial explanation of the fact that instruction in the 
city is on so low a plane. 



Conditions of City at Large 201 

5. LACK OF THEORY AS TO METHOD OF SUPERVISING 

An additional point throwing light on the efficiency of 
supervision by principals is found in the extent to which 
the theory of supervision appears to be developed among 
them. But it should be remembered that if there is a lack 
of such theory, they are no worse off than most principals 
elsewhere, since there is little literature bearing on the sub- 
ject. Going directly to the root of the matter — if the prin- 
cipals as a body were asked the question, " What plan have 
you for the preservation and development of the individ- 
uality of your teachers, so that they in turn can the better 
preserve and develop the individuality of their pupils?' 3 
a very great majority of them — so far as the observations 
of the visitors allow a conclusion — would have practically 
no answer. 

The use of model teaching by principals has already been 
mentioned. Further improvement of teachers by a prin- 
cipal is usually based on observation of their teaching. 
The little use made of such observation as a source of 
valuable material for conferences with the entire corps 
of teachers has already been referred to (page 183). Yet 
it should be remembered that the want of well-developed 
plans in this respect is not altogether chargeable against the 
principals themselves. Administrative detail is ever press- 
ing upon them; indeed, so much of it is communicated to 
them by their superior officers with the object of its being 
communicated to the teachers that, when principals find the 
teachers together, they cannot easily avoid the temptation 
to occupy the time with office routine. 

But the possibilities of the improvement of teachers 
through supervision that aims at discussion of their in- 
struction — much of it individual discussion — are great. 
What theory prevails among the principals in regard to 
that kind of supervision? 

Let us first see what some of the theory might be, irre- 
spective of actual conditions. 



202 Standards for Instruction 

There is one plan of observation and discussion that may, 
perhaps, most suitably be called intensive. According to it, 
the supervisor, impressed with the fact that thirty minutes 
of instruction involves a good share of all the factors that 
there are in teaching — just as a thirty-minute interview 
with a man will reveal a good share of all the factors in 
his character — makes the whole of a recitation his smallest 
unit of observation, during a good portion of his visits with 
teachers. And, desiring to impress his teachers with his 
conception of the magnitude of a single instruction period, 
he subjects each one that he witnesses to study, endeavoring 
to discover how it was related to the aims and principles 
of education, wherein it was strong, wherein weak, and 
how it might have been improved. Such questions can 
seldom be answered offhand. And, in trying to achieve the 
end he has in view, he remembers that he is also a teacher, 
in this case a teacher of teachers, and therefore subject to 
the same general requirements of good presentation in his 
discussions of recitations to which the teacher herself is 
subject in class. 

In the first place, then, his criticism will be as adverse 
as the situation requires; but it must also be constructive. 
Earnest teachers are not seeking mere praise; they want 
help. And they will raise no objection to adverse criticism, 
if valuable constructive criticism follows. 

Second: The criticisms offered, both adverse and con- 
structive, are helpful largely to the extent that they are 
based on reasons — such as aims and principles of educa- 
tion — rather than on personal authority. To ignore this 
fact and base statements on personal opinion quickly arouses 
antagonism and defeats the objects aimed at. 

Third: Since the principal is desiring to influence the 
teacher's conduct in class, he has chosen a most difficult 
task, and his ideas must be presented with all possible force. 
They must, therefore, be so arranged that all those bearing 
upon a particular point are brought together in good se- 
quence; there must be enough of them, too, to produce a 



Conditions of City at Large 203 

cumulative effect. And all of them, taken together, must 
be so ordered that the main suggestions seem few and 
simple. In short, the principal's ideas must be so organised 
as to produce conviction. 

Fourth: The lecture form of presentation is as unfitting 
for him as for the teachers. The teacher does not care to 
be lectured to ; that is too unpedagogical and undemocratic. 
Hence the principal should raise questions and participate 
in the answers through discussion. 

So much for a very brief outline of the theory. This 
is the plan of helping teachers followed more or less closely 
in some of our training schools for teachers, and it is prob- 
ably the most effective one there is. The objection to it is 
that it involves much work for the principal. But, strange 
to say, that is its advantage. It presupposes that the prin- 
cipal, by virtue of his position, must be a real student of 
instruction. And that is what the great mass of principals 
are not. Even if a man is thoroughly progressive at the 
time he takes a position as principal or superintendent, un- 
less he adopts a plan of supervision that compels him to 
study instruction intently, he gradually loses what grip he 
originally had on real education and becomes a business 
manager, though still called an educator. 

This plan of supervision is not entirely unknown in New 
York City, but we have seen no indication that it is gen- 
erally accepted even as an ideal. 

There is another plan, most suitably called extensive in 
contrast with the preceding, according to which the prin- 
cipal takes for his unit of study not the whole recitation, 
but some important feature of it, such as the form of the 
teacher's questions, or the proper use of voice, or clear 
enunciation, or the fulness of responses by children. Ac- 
cording to that plan a principal may remain with one teacher 
only long enough to observe her practise in this one respect ; 
then he may talk over the observations made, under the 
influence of the same standards, as to his method, as in 
the former case. This method accords more fully with 



204 Standards for Instruction 

the established habit in New York City of principals mov- 
ing at short intervals from room to room, and it seems 
wider in scope as well as easier. But to the extent that it 
is easier it is likely to be more superficial. For constructive 
criticism of many of these seemingly easy single features 
requires the observation of the whole recitation together 
with much study afterward. For example, take the form 
of a teacher's questions. By listening only a few moments 
to a teacher the principal may observe that her ques- 
tions are poor. But if he desires to show her what 
the leading half-dozen questions in the teaching of a given 
topic should actually be, he must make a careful study of 
that whole topic, and one of the best helps for that is 
for him to hear the entire recitation as the teacher con- 
ducts it. 

This plan is occasionally advocated by a principal in New 
York City, but it is not widely prevalent. 

The theory of supervision — so far as there is one — that 
tends most fully to prevail can be most clearly understood 
by an illustration. A principal conducted the visitor through 
six classes, remaining on the average perhaps six to seven 
minutes in each. At the end of that time the visitor felt 
confused as to what could possibly have been accomplished 
by the principal's visits, the visitor himself having seen too 
little of nearly every recitation even to judge its quality, 
to say nothing of giving constructive criticisms upon it. 
But discussion greatly cleared the confusion, as is shown 
by the following conversation at the close : Visitor — " Is 
this, then, your plan? In the teaching of a topic there is 
a certain series of steps to go through, an established pro- 
cedure to follow, and you have instructed your teachers 
until they understand what that series or procedure is ? " 
Principal — " Yes, that is it exactly." Visitor — " Then 
by visiting a teacher only a very few minutes, you can tell 
whether or not she is following that series, and can conse- 
quently judge how the work is going? " Principal — " Yes, 
that is just it." Visitor — " What portion, perhaps, of all 



Conditions of City at Large 205 

the instruction in your school can be judged in this way? " 
Principal — " Perhaps one half of it." 

A visit to one of the rooms — a third grade — in which 
the pupils were memorizing a poem had helped to illustrate 
this plan. To the visitor the young teacher had seemed to 
be doing reasonably well. But the principal, after perhaps 
two minutes of observation, appearing to be dissatisfied, 
himself took charge of the class and taught for ten to 
fifteen minutes. Afterward, when asked by the visitor why 
he had taken the class, he replied, in substance : " Did you 
not observe that the teacher was standing in the back part 
of the room ? A teacher, when a class is memorizing, should 
never stand in the back part of the room except (a), (b), 
(c). (The writer remembers that there were three excep- 
tions, although what they were he cannot recall.) Then 
did you not observe that the stanza had not been written 
on the blackboard? It is one of my rules that the gem to 
be memorized shall be placed on the board in front of the 
class, so that all eyes can be looking in the same direction 
at one time." (Each child had the poem in hand in print 
in his text-book at the time.) The principal on taking 
charge of the class had immediately placed himself in front 
of it, had asked the teacher to write the stanza on the board, 
and had then proceeded through six to seven more " steps," 
which could be included here did they not take up too much 
space. A type-written copy of the entire procedure — the 
same as had been furnished to the teachers — was handed 
to the visitor before his leaving the building. 

Here, then, is a theory of supervision according to which 
all teachers, after having been instructed to teach a given 
topic in the same detailed way, are tested by the principals' 
visits as to their faithfulness in following that method. 

While no one theory of supervision can be said to be 
general in New York City, and while the writer has not 
personally discovered a large number of principals devoted 
to this plan, there are reasons for believing it to be the 
most generally accepted plan in the city. 



206 Standards for Instruction 

One of these reasons is that the syllabi issued by the 
Board of Superintendents, who determine the controlling 
educational theories for the entire system to a remarkable 
degree, hold out, as already stated (page 158), such uni- 
formity of method as a duty. A second reason is that 
the district superintendents, if not unanimously in favor 
of such uniformity, still individually not only support these 
recommendations of the syllabi by insisting upon them in 
practise, but they also freely add others of the same kind 
to them. A third reason is that great numbers of teachers 
assert that obedience on their part is their prime virtue 
in the eyes of their superior officers; and the fact that 
" ability to comprehend instructions " — which, according 
to the teachers, includes " willingness to obey," between 
the lines — heads the list of points on which their success 
is rated and their salaries determined, lends color to this 
assertion. 

In brief, uniformity — of curriculum, and also of method 
— is at a great premium in New York City. And in con- 
sequence it is natural to expect to find the theory of super- 
vision by principals based on that idea. 

The extent to which this plan really helps the teacher to 
give expression to her own individuality and thus improve 
her in a fundamental way needs no extensive discussion. 

Neither the voluntary reports sent by the principals to 
the Board of Superintendents in the last five years nor the 
reports called for by the Board in that time show concern 
about either the theory or practise of supervision of in- 
struction in the city. 



CHAPTER XV 

CONCLUSIONS AS TO SUPERVISION BY 
PRINCIPALS 

WHILE the main effort of a principal of a school 
should be directed to the improvement of the instruc- 
tion, the main efforts of principals in New York City are 
directed to other matters than instruction. Most of the 
principals themselves readily admit this. 

Assuming that principals, in the time that they do devote 
to the supervision of instruction, are under obligations to 
improve teachers in their instruction, we have found 
through observation of principals and interviews with them 
that generally they are in the habit of spending very few 
minutes at any one time with any one teacher; that as a 
rule no remarks are made to the teacher about the work 
observed; and that what remarks are made are extremely 
brief, unstudied, unorganized, and little related to the aims 
and principles of education; and therefore that the prin- 
cipals are not supervising in a way that shows them to 
be real students of instruction or that greatly aids the 
teachers. 

Through interviews with teachers we have found that 
they very commonly deny having received positive aid in 
instruction from their principals, either separately or col- 
lectively, and there is a strong tendency for them to deny 
also that freedom of discussion is allowed them. 

The details on which these conclusions have been based 
have been verified by a study of several factors that neces- 
sarily greatly influence the extent and quality of supervision 
by principals. There are five of these factors. 

The first pertains to the prominence of administrative 

207 



208 Standards for Instruction 

duties. It has been found that little distinction has been 
made in practise between these duties and the supervising 
duties of principals, so that principals might be on their 
guard against subordinating the latter to the former; and 
that, even if they were thus put on their guard, the num- 
ber of administrative duties is at present so great that it 
is next to impossible not to allow them to consume most of 
the principal's time. 

Second , the great size of many of the schools makes the 
situation worse than it would otherwise be. In the larger 
schools the pressure upon the principal to confine himself 
to administration of business matters is greater than ever, 
while supervision by assistant principals is necessarily less 
effective than that by principals. 

Third, so little authority is allowed to principals in regard 
to curriculum, time allotment for each study, and method 
of teaching, owing to the authoritative way in which these 
matters are presented in the printed curriculum and syllabi, 
that an able principal is even restrained from adapting the 
instruction to his particular pupils. 

The principal is further hampered by the fact that there 
is a decided tendency to regard the district superintendent, 
rather than the principal, as the really active head of each 
school, while, so far as the special subjects are concerned, 
the principal is even more plainly a subordinate to the super- 
visors of those subjects. 

Finally, the principals bear no relation to their superior 
officers that allows them to make recommendations to these 
officers to which the latter are under obligations to reply. 

On account of these conditions the lack of authority 
among principals seriously interferes with their efficiency. 

Fourth, the frequency with which teachers must be rated 
makes examinations of them unnecessarily prominent. The 
basis on which the rating is made is of such a character that 
it necessarily directs the attention of teachers to the details 
of instruction rather than to its purposes, and to the teachers 
themselves rather than to the children; and the share that 



Conclusions as to Supervision 209 

the principal must take in this rating tends to unfit him 
for broad educational leadership. 

Fifth. There is a serious lack of theory among the prin- 
cipals as to how the work of supervising instruction should 
be undertaken. The theory that seems most to prevail is 
based on the idea that the degree of uniformity secured is 
one important measure of the excellence attained; and 
there is little study of the method of supervising, although 
it is the most important work of the principal. 

Each one of these five facts — namely, the overemphasis 
of administrative duties; the great size of many of the 
schools ; the want of authority among principals ; the prom- 
inence of examinations of teachers, together with the poor 
basis on which they are conducted ; and the lack of theory 
as to method of supervising — each one of these is a factor 
that seriously influences the quality of supervision by the 
principals, and each one of them tends to prevent excellence 
in this field. Thus all five tend strongly to verify the im- 
pression previously reached in regard to the character of 
supervision by principals, obtained by observation of prin- 
cipals engaged in supervising and by consultation with both 
principals and teachers. 

Attention may well be called, again, to the fact that there 
are numerous exceptions to almost every one of these gen- 
eral statements. All that has been attempted has been to 
discover what ideas and practises most generally prevail, 
and to set them forth. A considerable number of principals, 
who are either not oppressed by these obstacles, or at least 
find them not insurmountable, are performing the work of 
supervision in a very effective manner. But to overcome 
or ignore these restraints involves personal risk on their part 
and requires an extra degree of ability, independence, and 
energy. The majority of principals are not seriously to 
blame if they fail to show these qualities. It is the duty of 
the higher school authorities to establish conditions highly 
favorable to proper supervision by principals, rather than 
those positively inimical to it. 



CHAPTER XVI 

RECOMMENDATIONS AS TO SUPERVISION BY 

PRINCIPALS 

IN view of the foregoing considerations we make the fol- 
lowing recommendations : 

I. ON CLASSIFICATION OF PRINCIPALS' DUTIES 

The manifold duties of principals should be classified into 
three groups: (i) those that are purely clerical; (2) those 
that concern instruction more or less, but that largely con- 
cern routine, and therefore require little special ability; 
(3) those that require the technical ability of the educa- 
tional specialist. Such classification having been effected, 
the simpler tasks in (1) and (2) should be assigned to 
minor officials in such a way that the principal has very 
little responsibility in regard to them. Then a very definite 
understanding should be reached that the principal shall iden- 
tify himself primarily with the duties listed in group (3). 

2. ON SIZE OF SCHOOLS 

The present tendency to increase the size of schools — 

there are now nearly one hundred teachers in some of the 

elementary schools — should be positively checked, and a 

desirable size should be agreed upon for the future, possibly 

not exceeding thirty teachers. Also, some of the large 

schools should — when the arrangement of the building 

permits — be divided into separate schools. 

210 



Recommendations as to Supervision 211 



3. ON EXTENT OF AUTHORITY TO BE GRANTED TO PRINCIPALS 

The principal should be made the real, not merely the 
nominal, head of his school. To this end he and his teachers 
should take the initiative in making the curriculum in all 
subjects for their school. The syllabi should discuss 
methods in a way that will in no sense tend to tie his 
hands or those of his teachers. 

A definite avenue of approach to his superior officers 
should be established, so that recommendations that express 
the consensus of opinion of principals and that are for- 
warded to these officers shall command careful consideration 
and full reply within reasonable time. 

4. ON FREQUENCY AND BASIS OF TESTS OF TEACHERS 

The frequency with which teachers are now rated should 
be reduced, and the basis on which the rating takes place 
should be radically modified. 

5. ON DEVELOPMENT OF A THEORY OF SUPERVISION BY 
PRINCIPALS 

The idea should be established that a school is good to 
the extent that its individual conditions are met, not to the 
extent that its plan of procedure duplicates that of other 
schools. With this idea established, principals should be 
held responsible for developing a theory of supervision, and 
its content should be revealed (a) to teachers by the effective 
manner in which they are aided through its means, and (b) 
to the superior school officials by reports on this subject. 



Index 



INDEX 



Accuracy, 94; in details, 162; in 
technical processes, 36. 

Activity of pupils, judging by, 21. 

Administrative duties of principals, 
185-207; 

Aims, of instruction where found, 3; 
of the elementary school, 76; re- 
lation of principals to, 175; rela- 
tion of standards to, 3. 

Application of standards, 19, 83, 180; 
in elementary school, 85; to kin- 
dergarten, 83; to kindergarten and 
elementary instruction, 55; to par- 
ticular recitations, 23. 

Arithmetic, 42, 113, 156, 167. 

Attention, to organization, 9-57, 89, 
95> *57; to relative values, 58, 81, 
87, 94, 108, 115, 136, 146, 157. 

Attitude of teachers, 66; effect of 
curriculum on, 163. 

Authority, allowed to principals, 208, 
211; lack of, among principals, 188; 
as to method, 190; of district su- 
perintendents and special super- 
visors, 192. 

Basis of tests of teachers, 211. 

Character of the supervision, 180; 
of the syllabi, 172. 

Children, and teachers' initiative, 80; 
unruly, discipline of, 71. 

Children's interests and subject mat- 
ter, 79; initiative and self-reliance, 
63; purposes, effect on, 61; weigh- 
ing of values, 63. 

Civics, 129, 136. 

Classification of principal's duties, 
210. 

Clearness, 94. 

Clerical work of principals, 210. 



Composition, 156; and grammar, 91. 

Conclusions, 55, 64, 90, 128, 155, 
207. 

Condition of schoolroom, 84. 

Conferences of teachers and principals, 
183. 

Consideration of relative values, 102, 
127. 

Construction, and shop work, 124; in 
a kindergarten, 29; work, 124. 

Content of branches of study, 188. 

Cooking, 124, 125. 

Cord and raffia work, 124. 

Corporal punishment, 74. 

Correctness in use of tools, 36. 

Correlation of studies, 168. 

Current topics, Sept. 15, 1911, 23. 

Curriculum, and quality of initiative, 
79; and syllabi judging, 79; ad- 
justment to individual schools, 168; 
need of a printed, 155; tests of the, 
18. 

Customary tests inadequate, 1. 

Data for conclusions, 155. 

Dependence of principal on his teach- 
ers, 176. 

Development of a theory of super- 
vision, 211. 

Discipline of unruly children, 71. 

Drawing, 37, 124, 156. 

Duties of principal, 175; classifica- 
tion of, 210. 

Effect, of curriculum on attitude of 
teachers, 163; of large schools, 186; 
on children's purposes, 61; on 
organization of ideas, 62; on weigh- 
ing of values, 63. 

Efficiency of principal's supervision, 
judging the, 177. 



215 



2l6 



Index 



Elementary instruction, application 
of standards to, 55. 

Elementary school, aims of the, 76; 
application of standards in, 85; in- 
struction in, 59, 64. 

Elementary science, 156; nature study 
and, 106. 

English history, 156, 166. 

Essential meaning, reading for, 88. 

Excellence of finished product, 36. 

Exercise of initiative, 89, 96, in, 121. 

Expression of Individuality, 158. 

Factors, the four universal, 5. 

Fitness, 94. 

Force, 94. 

Frequent rating of teachers, 208. 

Geography, 128, 131, 136, 156, 160. 
Good and bad literature, 88. 
Good citizenship, 129, 136. 
Grammar, 156; and composition, 91; 
technicality, 166. 

Help given by principals, 182. 
Higher plane, the, 19. 
History, English, 156, 166. 
Home geography, 136. 
Hygiene, 51, 148. 

Ideas, effect of instruction on organi- 
zation of, 62. 

Imagination and reasoning, 58, 157. 

Improvement, sources of suggestions 
for, 17. 

Incidental instruction, 126. 

Independence and initiative, 58. 

Individuality, provision for, 84, 104; 
of teachers and pupils, 158. 

Initiative, 100; and independence, 
58; by pupils, n; effect on chil- 
dren, 63; exercise of, 89; in music 
lesson, 48; in teachers and pupils, 
143; of teachers and pupils, 96; 
provision for, 121, 127. 

Instruction, in three R's, tests of, 15; 
judging, 1 ; plans of, 19; quality of, 
1; theory of supervising, 209. 

Judging, a principal's supervision, 
177; by pupil's activity, 21; by 



two planes, 20; curriculum and 
syllabi, 79; instruction, 1; quality 
of supervision, standard for, 175; 
reliability of conclusions, 55; value 
of study, 79. 
Judgment, 157. 

Kindergarten, 155; and primary 
school, 69; application of standards 
to, 55, 83; construction in, 29-31. 

Leadership, lack of educational, 163. 
Lessons, in arithmetic, 42; in drawing, 

37; in music, 45; in shop work, 33. 
Lines of study, 188. 
Literature, good and bad, 88; and 

nature study, no; and reading, 85; 

good versus bad, 88; recitation, 25. 
Local history, 136. 
Lower plane, the, 19. 

Method of applying standards, 19; 
of judging conclusions, 55; of super- 
vising, lack of theory in, 201; of 
teaching, authority as to, 190. 

Mother Goose, 27, 45. 

Motivation, 98; provision for, 126. 

Motive, provision for, 83, 85, 91, 100, 
106, 119, 141, 156; and initiative, 
provision for, 153; in music lessons, 
46; on part of pupils, 5. 

Music, 45, 100, 156. 

Nature study, 109, 112, 156, 166; and 

elementary science, 106. 
Newspaper recitation, 23. 

Organization, 99, 105, 109; attention 
to, 9, 57, 89, 95, 157; in music les- 
son, 46; of ideas, effect on, 62; of 
subject matter, 13, 81, 84, 113, 124, 
144, 153. 

Physical education, 156. 
Physical training, 49, 139. 
Plan and progress books, 192. 
Planes, judging instruction by, 20; of 

instruction, 19; the two different, 

81. 
Points for rating teachers, 196. 
Present interests of children, 162. 



Index 



217 



Primary school and kindergarten, 69. 

Principal, dependence on his teachers, 
176; duties of, 175. 

Principals, administrative duties of, 
185; and teachers, conferences of, 
183; authority allowed to, 208, 211; 
conclusions as to supervision by, 
207; duties, classification of, 20; 
help given by, 182; lack of author- 
ity among, 188; supervision by 
recommendations as to, 210; super- 
vision, judging the efficiency of, 177; 
theory of supervision by, 211. 

Provision, for exercise of initiative, 96, 
in, 121; for individuality, 84, 104; 
for initiative, 127; for motivation, 
126; for motive, 83, 85, 91, 100, 106, 
119, 141, 156; for motive and initia- 
tive, 153; for organizing subject 
matter, 84. 

Punishment, corporal, 74. 

Pupils, activity of, 21; attention to 
organization, 9; consideration of 
values by, 7; initiative by, n; 
motive actuating, 5. 

Purpose, inculcation of, 56. 

Purposes, effect on children, 61. 

Quality, of instruction, 1 ; and curric- 
ulum, 79. 

Rating of teachers, 195, 208, 211. 

Reading, at sight, 104; and literature, 
85; for essential meanings, 88; reci- 
tation first grade, 27. 

Reasoning and imagination, 58, 157. 

Recitations, application of standards 
to particular, 23. 

Recommendations, 69, 163; as to 
supervision by principals, 210. 

Relation, of principals to aims, 175; 
of standards to aims, 3. 

Relative values, 100, 102; attention 
to, 58, 81, 87, 94, 108, 115, 136, 146, 
157; consideration of, 127. 

Reliability of conclusions, 55. 

R's, the three, 15. 

Routine work of principals, 210. 

Schoolroom, condition of, 84. 
Schools, size of, 186, 208, 210. 



Self-activity, 85. 

Self-reliance, effect on children, 63. 

Sequence, 94. 

Sewing, 124, 1^5, 156. 

Shop work, ss, 156. 

Size of schools, 186, 208, 210. 

Sources of suggestions for improve- 
ment, 17. 

Speed in securing results, 36. 

Spelling, 98. 

Standards, actually followed, 161; 
and aims, 3; application of, 23, 180; 
for judging supervision, 175; in 
general, 1 ; used in investigation, 5 ; 
value of, 8. 

Studies, correlation of, 168. 

Study, content of branches of, 188; 
lines of, 188; time for each, 189; 
value of, 79. 

Subject matter and children's inter- 
ests, 79; organization of, 81, 84, 
113, 124, 144, 153; relation to pur- 
poses and initiative of children, 130. 

Suggestions for improvement, sources 
of, 17. 

Summary, 147. 

Superintendents, district, authority 
due to, 192. 

Supervising instruction, theory of, 209; 
lack of theory as to method, 201. 

Supervision, 173; by principals, con- 
clusions as to, 207; recommenda- 
tions as to, 210; theory of, 211; 
character of the, 180; standard for 
judging quality of, 175; teachers' 
reports on, 182; time spent in, 180. 

Supervisor, special, authority due to, 
192. 

Syllabi, character of the, 172; and 
curriculum judging, 79. 

Syllabus, need of a printed, 155. 

Teacher, status of the, 70. 

Teachers, and children, initiative in, 
80; and pupils, initiative in, 143; 
individuality of, 158; provision for 
exercise of initiative, 96; and prin- 
cipals, conferences of, 183; atti- 
tude of, 66; frequency of rating, 
208; rating of, 195; reports on su- 
pervision, 182. 



218 



Index 



Technical processes, accuracy in, 36. 

Technical work of principals, 210. 

Tests, customary inadequate, 1; of 
the curriculum, 18; of instruction 
in the three R's, 15; of thorough- 
ness, 14. 

Theory as to method of supervising, 
201; of supervising instruction, 
209; of supervision by principals, 
211; the working of the New York 
schools, 59. 

Thoroughness, tests of, 14. 

Three R's, tests of instruction in, 15. 

Time, for each study, 189; spent in 
supervision, 180. 

Tools, correctness in use of, 36. 

Topics in geography, 131. 



Training, physical, 139. 
Truancy, 71. 

Unification of kindergarten and pri- 
mary school, 69. 

Uniformity limiting, 70; unlimited, 
162. 

Unruly children, discipline of, 71. 

Value of standards, 8; of study judg- 
ing, 79- 

Values, consideration of by pupils, 7; 
in music lesson, 47; weighing of, 63. 

Weighing of values, 63. 
Working theory of the New York 
Schools, 59. 



iniumminu 



Complete list of the 



School Efficiency Series 

Edited by Paul H. Hanus, of Harvard University 



"One of the most noteworthy undertakings in professional education of 
the century." — Professor C. H. Johnston, University of Illinois 



Frank P. Bachman. Problems in Elementary School Administration. 
Cloth. X-Y272 pages. 

Frank W. Ballou. High School Organization. Cloth. 

S. A. Courtis. Standards in Arithmetic. In preparation. 

Ellwood P. Cubberley, Fletcher B. Dresslar, Edward C. Elliott, 
J. H. Francis, Frank E. Spaulding, and Lewis M. Terman. The 
Portland Survey. Cloth. xiv-\-44i pages. 

Calvin O. Davis. High School Courses of Study. Cloth. 

Edward C. Elliott. City School Supervision. Cloth. 

Henry H. Goddard. School Training of Defective Children. Cloth. 

Paul H. Hanus. School Efficiency : A Constructive Study. Cloth. 

Frank M. McMurry. Elementary School Standards. Instruction : Course 
of Study: Supervision. Cloth, xii+218 pages. 

Ernest C. Moore. How New York City Administers Its Schools : A Con- 
structive Study. Cloth, xii-j-322 pages. 

Herman Schneider. Education for Industrial Workers. Cloth. 

George D. Strayer, Frank P. Bachman, Ellwood P. Cubberley, 
William T. Bawden, and F. J. Kelly. Some Problems in City School 
Administration. Cloth, xii+234 pages. 

Frank V. Thompson. Commercial Education in Public Secondary Schools. 
Cloth. xiv+iQ4 pages. 



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